Why Couldn't It Be A Lottery?
by almne
Summary: Hiccup's newest students aren't the easiest to deal with. Neither is he. Sequel to A Downed Dragon is a Dead Dragon
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, never was. Though I have gotten a hold of a bit of the movie merchandise.

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"Why couldn't it have been a competition, a lottery, something, anything other than _this?_"

Astrid walked up to Hiccup, who was standing next to his dragon Toothless, as the two observed the group of people gathered in the old training arena. They were separated into a few groups. One, a group of young men who were in their twenties or older, they were talking quietly among each other. Another group was of teen boys Hiccup's age or a few years younger, they were busy sizing each other up and occasionally a loud brag from one of them floated up to those above them. There were two people standing on their own. One was a boy who looked about nine and the other was a girl about her age. There seemed to be nothing to unify them…

"And what is _this?_" She asked as she came up next to the two.

"Astrid! You're back!" Hiccup turned towards her smiling at the sight of her. She had gone with the small fleet who had "escorted" the Dornarans back to their island. "This is the Heirs to the tribes come to learn how to train dragons." He replied with a gesture at the assembled people.

"Ah." She replied noncommittally. That would explain the range of ages she'd seen.

"Yeah, ah." Hiccup grumbled. "I figured they'd send whoever won whatever contest they decided on. I could work with an ordinary warrior who only thinks with their muscles. Um, not to say that all warriors think with their- Ow." He rubbed his arm where Astrid had smacked him. "Anyway _this_ bunch has been raised believing, whether or not it's true, that they are the best of the best of their tribe. Also I think they were sent to offset me." Astrid arched an eyebrow at him. "I mean that by I won't outrank any of them, whatever little advantage that gives me."

"At least you look better." She offered. "More scrawny, less half dead." He had filled out a bit and was looking more like himself.

Hiccup snorted, causing Toothless to crane his head to look at him. "I swear every woman on Berk has been shoving food at me. Every time I turned around there was somebody with a roll, or fish, or something they were putting in my hands. It's been driving me nuts. Maybe you can make them stop?" He asked looking at her hopefully.

She simply glanced at him before turning her attention back to the arena. "That's not all of the tribes heirs, is it?" She asked puzzled. It seemed like there weren't enough people to represent everybody.

"Nah, we only started with fourteen." Hiccup replied. "I guess the others are waiting to see if we actually return this batch before they trust us. That would mostly be among the southernmost tribes, this group is mostly from the northernmost tribes. Or at least the ones with the most trouble with dragons."

Astrid turned back to him, a small frown line drawn between her brows. "But I only count twelve down there," she started, "where's the other two? Are they late?"

"Ah, that… Well this is actually the second class." Hiccup twiddled his fingers nervously. "Yesterday didn't go so well."

"Uh huh, and how did it not go so well?" Astrid asked.

"That whole not outranking thing? Yeah, that came into play." Hiccup leaned against Toothless' side as he looked at her. The dragon automatically shifted to curl slightly around him. Ever since the kidnapping the Night Fury had been far more protective of the young man, becoming hostile to anyone not from Berk and wary even among them to people he didn't know well.

"Two morons who thought more with their muscles, and that's insulting to the concept of thinking, decided to inform me that as a scrawny weakling I didn't deserve such a rare and impressive dragon as a Night Fury." Hiccup explained sardonically.

Astrid winced in sympathy. She was already seeing how this went. "Are they dead?" She asked, and wouldn't that make all of the tribes happy?

"No, Toothless held himself back." Hiccup patted the flank he rested on. "As soon as the first of the pair shoved me he did react. Sent one flying into the wall of the arena with his tail. The other he reared up and smacked in the chest with his front paw. The former woke up after about ten minutes. He seemed a bit rattled in the head, but as stupid as he was to try that in the first place, I don't think it did too much damage. The latter was only scratched, barely bled at all for all he was howling about it. Both of them are working at the tannery to learn how best to treat hides to make it into saddles." Hiccup said. "And trying not to throw up while they do so." He finished grinning.

Astrid snorted. It was a very Hiccup punishment. They might learn something useful, but they would be miserable while they did so. The tannery was a dirty, awful smelling place to be sent to work. It was situated outside the village as far downwind as it could be and not fall into the ocean.

"On the plus side I got the whole 'Once a dragon has chosen a person you don't argue with their choice' speech out of the way already." Hiccup continued. There had been a few problems in Berk due to that fact as the dragons had settled into the village. The worst had been when a Zippleback had one head choose a man and the other head choose a woman. The man had been married to another woman who took a great deal of offense at the dragon choosing the other woman who had been a good friend of the man's when they'd been children. It had almost resulted in bloodshed. The wife had ended up with a very temperamental Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup knew that that particular family was rather strained still.

"So what's your plan for today?" She asked.

"Today we try to have everybody interact with a dragon without it attacking them." He replied as he leaned down and scooped a basket off of the ground.

"What's that? Fish or Dragon Grass?" Astrid asked, peering at the basket. She assumed he'd start with a Gronkle. They were the most laid back among the breeds. Nadders sometimes got wound up about something and would be prickly and fussy until you figured out what was bothering them. Zipplebacks preferred two riders, so it wouldn't be a good idea for the students to work with as if one became attached it would be difficult when the heirs split up to go back to their tribes. Nightmares were extremely high maintenance, with the added fun of setting themselves on fire when they were upset, stressed, or simply feeling pissy at the world.

"Neither." Hiccup answered as he opened the basket. Inside was the fattest Terrible Terror she'd ever seen. "This is Flit." He told her. "Though now he looks more like a Flop," he added as he looked at the small dragon critically. The rotund little creature was lying on several leather cushions within the basket. The sudden removal of the lid had caused him to jerk his head up. The Terror yawned, showing its toothless beaked mouth. That beak could sever the unwary finger right off, even if it wasn't as terrifying visually as a Nightmare's jagged fangs. It flicked its tongue out, around its mouth and over one eye as it cocked its head, studying the two humans. It was a fairly pretty marked Terror. Its body was a slightly-darker-than-grass green, shifting to a deep red along its spinal ridges. Those ridges had a faint bit of yellow on the tips and along the edges, looking like gilding. Deciding that neither human was going to scratch him, or better yet give him food, the Terror laid its head back down, curling up in the basket. "This is Elder Gosti's Terror." He explained to her.

Astrid nodded. While most homes had taken in a Terrible Terror or two, whether they wanted to or not, the elders had been the happiest to take them. Too old to really enjoy flying, none of them had really seen the point of one of the larger breeds. However, a small creature that could ensure a fire was always lit and wanted to lay in your lap, keeping old bones warm? Most of the elders had been thrilled. A few bits of fish and all of them had a friend who kept them warm and comfortable through the winter months. Of course they wound up spoiling the small dragons thoroughly, which was why Flit was more of a spherical shape than a lizard one.

"He's the laziest dragon in the village, and the most relaxed among new people." Hiccup continued on, "after the rather dramatic actions of yesterday," here he looked hard at Toothless, who returned the stare innocently, "I wanted something a little easier to handle for today." He reached in the basket and gave Flit a quick scratch under the chin. The Terror gave a purr, leaning into the touch. Hiccup removed his hand and placed the cover back on the basket, before turning to Astrid again.

"So how did the return go?" He asked as he turned to the entrance of the arena.

"Not too bad. We got to Dornar, unloaded the captives and had all of the people left behind gather in the Hall and told them of what the rest of the Chiefs had decided. They weren't thrilled, especially about the foreign tribes sending people to watch them, but it wasn't like there was anything they could do about it. Since Prettyscale went with me this time I was mostly a messenger for the tribes. We may not be as quick as you," she said smiling at Toothless and Hiccup, "but we're faster than a boat."

"Were the people okay?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know how many were there before winter," Astrid said with a shrug, "but there seemed to be a good number of women and children there. Oh, one named Hilde said to say thank you." She eyed him.

Hiccup held his hands up. "She just helped me when Dirk beat me. That's all." Astrid looked unconvinced, but shrugged again.

She snorted then, a short sound. "Speaking of that waste of air, he disappeared. The morning I was going to fly back a small fishing boat was found gone. A quick check found that Dirk was gone too. Wasn't too hard to put two and two together. I ended up staying an extra day doing patrols on Prettyscale to try and find him, but no luck. The council decided to declare him Outcast.

Hiccup grimaced. Dirk running around was not a good thing. "Can't say I'm surprised. At least he probably won't show up on a dragon. All of them seem to hate him on sight."

He then shifted the basket he was carrying. "Well, time to face my students. Again." The young man headed to the ramp, Toothless walking easily beside him on his left. Astrid fell into step beside him on the other side.

"Mind if I come along?" she asked.

"Not at all. I can use all the support I can get." Hiccup replied cheerfully as they walked down to the arena.

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First part of what I thought was an epilogue/one shot. Not so much as it seems. It wants to be longer. Hope you like.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine

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Hiccup entered the arena watching the students warily. While they probably wouldn't try a repeat of yesterday, even they weren't _that_ stupid, he had to assume they would test him again. The other students watched him back. The older ones seemed the most contemplative. The teen boy had expressions of smug confidence, that was shown to be slightly shaken when Toothless glared at them. The girl kept her confidence, despite the dragon's glare, balancing forward on the balls of her feet, hands on her hips and her head held high. The younger boy stood there looking like he'd just love to be able to dissolve into the walls surrounding them, his eyes so wide it looked like they were going to pop out.

Hiccup set the basket down carefully, not wanting to irritate Flit inside it. He was sure his students would be more than capable of that. He stood up to his full height, which left him taller than the girl and the child, and clapped his hands together.

"Okay, let's try this again." He said, aiming for upbeat. "I'm going to teach you how to train dragons. How well you learn will determine how well your tribe will wind up doing." Some of the teens looked unnerved at that, apparently forgetting in their squabbles about rank and position that they would be expected to teach this back to others. "I'm going to have you start simple, all of you are going to approach a dragon without any injuries or your part or the dragon's, and without irritating the dragon."

"With that one?" One of the teens asked, looking at Toothless apprehensively. The Night Fury had taken up a position sitting right behind Hiccup, his head level with the young man's shoulder.

"Nope." Hiccup replied. He bent down and whisked the lid off of the basket at his feet and lifted the Terrible Terror out. Flit blinked at the light and gave a small sigh before relaxing in Hiccup's arms. "This one." He had to bite the side of his check to keep from grinning at the affronted expressions on all of the gathered student's faces.

"A Terror? I figured we'd start with an actual dragon, not a pest." Snarled one of the older men, Hammerthew, Hiccup thought was his name.

He held his head up. "I was planning on that, at first. However, given yesterday's fiasco I feel I should start at the very beginning. And with a dragon that if you irritate it, probably won't kill you in one shot." He hefted the fat little dragon. "This is Flit. You are going to try to pet him without him hissing or trying to bite you. I have a small bag of dried fish pieces to help you lure him in easier." He set the dragon down. Flit stretched, his claws scraping on the stone floor, as he yawned. "I'm going to step back and see…"

"This is the training? Controlling a little pest like that?" He was interrupted by one of the teens this time. "Please, I've heard you can control Nightmares, Hel that Night Fury of yours does what you tell it to." Toothless lifted his lip to snarl a little at the boy. "And you want us to start on that?" He finished looking disgusted, as he waved at the small dragon.

Hiccup felt his temper fray a bit. He didn't feel like correcting the boy on Toothless. Toothless did as he pleased, it was just that the two of them understood each other so well, there never was any need for orders most of the time. He decided to go Gobber's route of training for a bit. Maybe when he showed he could get things sorted out no matter how messed up the students had made them, they might be willing to listen to him from the beginning. "Fine." He nodded to the boy. "You know so much, you show how it's done." With that statement he took the little bag of dried fish and tossed it to the boy.

Now that he was expected to show off the teen looked rather nervously at the tiny dragon he'd been so disparaging of a short time ago. Meanwhile, Flit's nostrils flared at the smell of dried fish from the bag the boy held and he got up surprisingly easily for as fat as he was. He paced towards the boy, his tongue flicking out in anticipation as he cocked his head at the teen. The boy looked down at the dragon, taking a half step hack. Flit pounced. The teen was now shrieking, waving his arm wildly as the Terror tried to get to the bag of fish.

Hiccup stayed back, watching the students to see what they did. Flit wouldn't hurt the boy, he was too laid back to bother with that. He was just interested in the fish. Most of the teens ran away from the one with the Terror clinging to him. The older men were approaching cautiously, their hands automatically going to weapons they weren't carrying. Flit had managed to grab the bag of dried fish and was now perched on the boy's head with his tail wrapped around his neck, gnawing on the leather bag held in his front claws.

The girl in the group paid no attention to the activity behind her as she approached Hiccup. She nodded to him before narrowing her eyes at Astrid.

"Hello, Camicazi." Hiccup said cautiously. In only a few short days he'd learned to be wary around her, even if she was smaller than him. She had Astrid's skill with weapons, but without her self control. She'd already beaten the snot out of all of the other Heirs when they'd challenged her. It had taken a good bit of negotiation on Hiccup's part to get her to leave her insane amount of weapons, ropes, lock picks, and other assorted paraphernalia at her temporary residence when in training around dragons.

"Hey Hiccup!" She replied cheerfully as she gave him a hard slap on the back in greeting, showing either her insanity or sheer overconfidence as Toothless immediately turned to keep an eye on her, growling loudly. For as small as she was she had a good bit of strength, He rocked a bit from the friendly blow. "Interesting teaching methods." She said as she turned to look.

Flit had chewed the bag open, causing it to spill all over the floor. He had left the boy whose head he'd been clinging to so that he could go after the spilled treats. Some boys had scooped pieces to try and lure the Terror to them. Several of them trailed the dragon, trying to get near enough to touch him. Two boys had just walked into each other while trying to sneak up on the dragon, forgetting to watch where they were going.

She turned back to the two humans standing apart. "Astrid, I see you still are wasting your time with the boys." She commented, tossing her loose, wild hair behind her shoulder.

"Well, if you don't think you can keep up with them, I suppose I would run off to join your tribe, now wouldn't I?" Astrid replied, baring her teeth in a parody of a smile.

Camicazi's eyes narrowed further as she bared her teeth in the same sort of smile. "I don't really see them as a challenge, why waste my time on them?"

Hiccup carefully backed up from between the two girls, who looked about ready to go for the other's throat. He gave a slight cough, causing two glares to re-orient on him. "Ah, Camicazi, why don't you go out there and show your skills off to the rest of the class?" She tilted her chin up and tossed her hair again before wading back into the action.

Things had managed to devolve further. Somehow Flit had gotten the fish from the boys who'd gathered it, and managed to irritate the older men who were stomping towards the small dragon like they were trying to squash it, rather than pet it. The teen boys were tripping over each other as they tried to chase Flit who was far more agile and quick than Hiccup had given the lazy beast credit for. Camicazi had strode into the chaos and only managed to add more to in, her higher tones more audible as she swore fluently every time Flit evaded her or another student got in her way.

Hiccup figured the class had had enough time to look like fools. He whistled sharply, causing all of the students to stop running about and look at him. He walked easily over to where Flit sat, the Terror sitting up but ready to start the "chase game" again. Hiccup knelt down, holding a hand out calmly as Flit cautiously approached. When the Terror was within reach, he gave Flit a scratch which made the little dragon come closer until he could pick it up. Flit stretched slightly in his arms as he stood up, then curled into a ball, obviously happy from the play.

"Dragons are very responsive to our emotions." Hiccup began to speak to the gathering. The older men, who had kept out of the craziness for the most part, seemed impressed he'd so easily picked up the Terror. The teens seemed dumbfounded. "Approach a dragon threateningly and they'll do the same." Toothless had caught up with where Hiccup was and leaned over to give Flit a sniff. "If you run about in excitement, again they'll do the same. You have to approach them calmly, but not arrogantly. Some of them see arrogance as a challenge, which tends to end badly."

He walked over to the basket and placed Flit back into it. He then looked around at his students. Where was… Ah! "Hawkspit! Come over here!" He called to the young boy. Hawkspit was plastered to the wall of the arena, watching everything wide-eyed. He jerked when Hiccup called him. Hawkspit headed over to where Hiccup was, freezing every time Toothless shifted or Flit moved.

Hiccup smiled down at him as the boy came beside him. It was nice not being the smallest in the group. He didn't really consider Camicazi smaller due to the likelihood of her removing his other leg at the idea.

"Okay, Hawkspit, now stand here." He adjusted the boy so he was standing in front of him. "Crouch down, just a bit." Hiccup continued as he went down to his knees, crouching being a bit difficult when you only had one ankle. He took Hawkspit's arm and extended it. Placing a bit of dried fish from a second bag he'd kept on him in the boy's palm, he stayed behind him. "Now you let the dragon approach you." Hiccup raised his voice a bit. "It's always best to let a strange dragon approach you. It's far less threatening than coming towards them."

Flit sniffed at the fish as he carefully approached. The little dragon's wings were half spread in case the boy decided to start the chase game again. Flit's tongue flicked out to take a piece of fish from Hawkspit's palm. The boy jerked, but Hiccup kept a hand on his shoulder to keep him from bolting. "When Flit is closer give him a quick scratch on the chin." He told the boy.

Hawkspit's face showed his serious misgivings, but when Flit's head came close to check for more fish, he moved his fingers to give a gentle scritch to the Terror's chin. Flit's eye's drooped shut as he chirped happily, coming closer for more attention. As much as he had enjoyed the chase, he loved being fussed over more. Hiccup talked Hawkspit into picking up and cradling the dragon, who was now a happy puddle of contentment. He'd gotten a bunch of treats, played with a bunch of humans, and now was being fussed over. What was there not to love?

Now Hiccup had the other students come up to the peaceful dragon, then had Hawkspit put Flit down and the others approach from the beginning. Even the older men were smiling as Flit rolled on his back to enjoy the attention. There were a few upsets, such as when one boy came at him too quickly and threateningly and got a short blast of fire in his direction, but for the most part it went smoothly once they were willing to listen to Hiccup's instruction.

He looked over the class and smiled. "Okay, I think we've done a bit of good here today. We'll get into more techniques tomorrow. For the rest of the day I'd like you to try to approach some of the dragons in the village. I want you to try to see how well you can recognize a dragon's mood from both a distance and as close as you want to try to get to them." After dismissing the class he turned to Astrid.

She grinned at him. "Ready to go for a flight?"

"Odin, yes." He gasped. "I just want to get out of here before they start to pester me the way our people did for seven moths after I woke up after killing the Queen. I have to deal with them in class, I don't want to have them hovering over me. I'll meet you in the air." He added as he swung a leg over Toothless' shoulder. The Night Fury perked up immediately. "I suppose I should return Flit as well."

Astrid laughed and handed the basket up to him with the sleepy dragon in it. "See you in the sky!"

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A/N: Hope you like this chapter. Sorry it took so long on the update.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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Thuggory hadn't been sure what to expect from the so-called teacher. He hadn't gotten to go with his father to the council meeting to decide what to do about Berk. Being twenty five he'd been taking over more and more of his father's duties when the older man was needed or wanted elsewhere, and so had stayed behind. His wife hadn't been unhappy to keep him home, seeing as she had been so close to delivering their second child.

Then his father came home. While he'd been thrilled to welcome a second grandson, he'd spent a good bit of time ranting about the arrogant little beast of an heir the Berklanders had who had threatened them all with a dragon in order to get his way. One moment his father would be talking about what a scrawny, useless looking weed the boy was, and the next shouting about how he was a monster who controlled the dragons, obviously planning on conquering everybody else with them. And then he'd turned and curtly informed Thuggory that he was to go to Berk to learn how to tame dragons from this "useless, monstrous" heir. His father had gone into another long-winded rant about how he wasn't going to see the boy outrank _his_ choice of student.

Thuggory had long since learned when it was best to keep quiet during one of his father's rants, and so it was decided. There was disappointment from other warriors who had wanted to show that they were the best and could bring back the secrets of taming dragons to their island. His wife Drifa on the other hand, hadn't been thrilled. At least from what he could tell, generally a dagger planting itself in the lintel of the door as you entered it wasn't a good sign, which had happened when he had told her the news that he was leaving. His older son, who was three, wasn't happy either. Being left in charge of the village frequently, meant he was home a great deal more than other men.

The sail to the island of Berk was an easy one. Their island was one of the closest one to Berk, so he had an expectation of being the first one there. He arrived in the harbor, which was obviously new, some planks hadn't been used enough to wear off all the splinters yet. He climbed up the causeway to the village to look around. It was deeply disturbing for him. Seeing the dragons, everywhere, took a moment to get used to. Then he realized that none of the dragons had any sort of leash or restraint, which took another.

Standing there, looking around, he'd been spotted by a younger man who eyed him, measuring him up. He stifled a sigh. He knew plenty of young men just like this one back home. Broad chested, well trained, but without the experience that knocked some of the brashness and arrogance off, and yet still believing they were invulnerable. He'd beaten down a few back home who wouldn't listen, and been beaten down back when he'd been ranked among them.

The brunet casually wandered over. Thuggory narrowed his eyes at the challenge he could see the other younger offering. "You Hiccup?" He asked tersely. He really didn't want to learn from a younger man he thought needed a beat down.

The question seemed to throw the other. "Hiccup? Nah, nah, that's my cousin." He seemed to settle some what, still cocky, but the aura of challenge seemed to be gone. If anything he seemed to be amused now. "I'm Snotlout." He turned slightly.

"_Hiccup! Your first student is here!"_ He bellowed up the hillside the village perched on.

"He'll be down soon." Snotlout told him, now looking him over with interest.

"Thuggory." He introduced himself, holding out a hand in introduction. The two of them squeezed the other's hand while looking at each other for signs of weakness. If it wasn't for his own blond hair pulled back in a braid, they could've been brothers. Both were the muscular, stocky, sturdy Viking cast that was common. In fact, if Thuggory remembered correctly, they were related. He was almost certain his paternal grandmother had been the younger sister of the Chief of Berk, who'd been this one's grandfather. He was several inches taller than Snotlout, but the younger man looked like he hadn't quite stopped growing yet. He more or less expected another in the same mold from Hiccup.

"Toothless, damn you to Hel, I can get down the stairs _fine_. I can move fine, I'm not about to faint…Get your scaley rear out of my way!" This was yelled by a slight, pale boy with dark red hair. He was standing a few steps above the plaza where Thuggory was, his hands on his hips as he glared at the black dragon who hovered beside him. This was the feared Night Fury his father had yelled about being a devil who had threatened the entire council? Yes it was large, but still smaller than a Monstrous Nightmare and right now looked about as threatening as a kitten. The dragon kept turning, as though to get the boy to climb on the harness the creature wore, while the boy kept shoving it away and taking another step. Still arguing with the beast, he made it down to the plaza and looked up, smiling at Thuggory in welcome. He began to walk over, the dragon still watching him closely.

"Hi, I'm Hiccup…" He started. The dragon's attention shifted from the short, slender boy he was next to, to Thuggory and before he could draw his sword the creature slammed into him and he got an up close and personal look at all the teeth it had. The speed and power the dragon had displayed in taking him down left him more breathless than being knocked down. Narrowed green eyes with slit-thin pupils glared at him and he saw the tell-tale gas of fire seeping from the dragon's mouth.

"_Toothless! No! Bad dragon!"_ he heard and almost wanted to laugh. Intimidating the boy's voice wasn't. But the dragon obeyed. Mostly. It lifted its head to look at the boy who was tugging on the harness the dragon wore and shifted its weight so he could breathe again. "Get off of him, you useless reptile. He's here peacefully. Now, get off!" Hiccup repeated firmly, causing the dragon to release him. Now the dragon had shoved the boy away from him, positioning itself between them, still growling at him and showing its teeth.

Why in Odin's name did the demented boy call it Toothless? Was it sarcasm, the way one of the biggest and most brutal warriors on his home island was called Tiny? He stared back at the beast as he carefully got to his feet.

"I'm really sorry about that." Hiccup began, looking apologetic. "He's been rather protective of me recently. Well, since I got out of bed from being stabbed at least."

Thuggory had to stare at the boy. No, young man. He was obviously older than he'd assumed at first glance, though he'd never be the usual hulking warrior. And to comment about a severe injury so off-hand, well he'd known older warriors of his father's to speak the same way... The dragon had shifted, showing that the young man was missing most of his left leg below the knee. He suddenly realized the other young man was laughing loudly, bent over.

"Man, Hiccup, are you sure Toothless isn't a chick?" Snotlout asked grinning. "Maybe _she_ just thinks you're one fugly hatchling to look over. I mean _nobody's_ dragon fusses over them like yours."

"Shut up." Hiccup muttered. He looked over the dragon beside him. "I'm almost sure Toothless is male." He cocked his head. "Ninety percent certain at least."

This caused another burst of laughter from his cousin, causing the other to scowl. "It's not like I have a bunch of other Night Furies to compare him to." Hiccup snapped shortly. He then looked at Snotlout slyly. "As opposed to you, who insisted Fireworm was male, despite all proof to the contrary, until she laid a clutch."

While Snotlout blustered, Hiccup walked up to Thuggory grinning at having won. Thuggory tensed as the younger came close, seeing how agitated the dragon was becoming at the approach.

"I would've thought that the person who was going to teach others how to tame dragons would have better control over their own." He stated warily.

"Train." Hiccup replied. At Thuggory's confused expression he continued, "train dragons, not tame them. You can't tame a dragon anymore than you could tame a Viking." He paused. "Well I suppose you could tame either, but you'd probably have to break their spirit first. I spend more time training Vikings, really, than dragons. Despite my title," He snorted slightly, "it's not so much a master and servant relationship as a partnership." The young man pulled himself to his full height. "Toothless and I have one of, if not the, closest partnership. We're the best." Hiccup finished with a grin.

"On other matters," the young man continued, "we have several families who have space for you to sleep, or there is a barracks available. Whichever you prefer."

"I assumed I'd stay in the Chief's home, as I am an heir to my tribe." Thuggory replied. He was slightly annoyed, that was the normal place to stay for an equal. Was the other trying to slight him?

"Well there's three reasons we're not having people stay at our home. One, we had no idea who would be coming, and so didn't plan for it. Two, I didn't want to give the appearance of favoritism to anybody, and three? I really didn't want to try to convince Toothless to let a stranger in the house."

Thuggory blinked, while the first reason was iffy, the second had definite merit. Whether or not Hiccup favored any of the guests, it would be assumed that anyone who stayed with the Chief was being treated better than those who weren't. Which could lead to strained relations between the students, and then be brought back to their respective tribes.

And the third reason stood out. Thuggory looked at the black dragon, who was glaring back. Yeah, he'd rather not wake up to that each morning.

"I think I'll take the barracks." Thuggory replied.

"Great, they're this way, I'll walk you there." Hiccup responded as he began to walk beside him. The artificial leg gave him a slight limp, but unless you knew what to look for it wasn't noticeable. The Night Fury kept pace on his other side.

"Your dragon lives with you? I mean in the house?" He asked as he realized what Hiccup had been saying.

"Apparently when I was unconscious after losing my leg Toothless got in the house somehow. My dad wasn't thrilled about it and there was quite the showdown between the two. I think Toothless is the first creature to out stubborn my dad. When I woke up he was inside, and he's stayed there ever since. As long as he doesn't burn the place down my dad just treats him like a mobile piece of furniture." He stopped their walk to gesture to an open spaced structure. It had a sturdy roof and large openings on the levels for dragons to enter. "Most of the dragons in the village live in something like that since a lot of them hate feeling confined." He shrugged and started walking again. "Toothless is just special." The young man smiled at the dragon by his side.

Thuggory wound up having to wait several days for the rest of the people who wanted to learn to show up. The day after he arrived two ships came in, one in the morning, the other almost at sunset. Others trickled in the next several days. He was rather surprised to see that everyone of the students was the heir to their respective tribes. He supposed it was just as well none of them were staying at the Chiefs house, someone would've taken it as an insult to not be there when another was. He recognized several of the men close to his age and a few of the slightly younger ones by name if not by face.

He didn't see Hiccup up close again until the morning of the first lesson, which had been announced during a dinner to welcome them all to Berk, held in the Great Hall. By that time he'd seen Hiccup and the Night Fury in the air more than once. The boy and dragon moved as one as they darted and spiraled in the air. He wasn't the only one of the new students to watch in raw envy as the two dived so suddenly it seemed like they were bound to crash into the water, before leveling off in at a fast speed, skimming the waves. Most of the Berklanders simply ignored the acrobatics, too long used to seeing the Night Fury's antics to be amazed by them. Some of the teens seemed more captivated by the scene than others though.

That may have been why the first class went wrong so quickly. Two teens a few years younger than him, old enough to know better and young enough not to care, went towards Hiccup who had been introducing himself to those he didn't know. Thuggory had seen the two around the village, obviously they had visited before. Mostly he'd seen them hanging around with Snotlout, who had taken great pride in showing off the Monstrous Nightmare who was his. The way they now approached the smaller young man was not in any way friendly.

"Hey Hiccup." One of them remarked as he got close. The other students watched interestedly. Challenging each other was a normal part of growing up and if Hiccup bent, even a little, all of the students would make his life a living hell.

"Dogsbreath, Clueless. It's been a while." Hiccup replied evenly. _'Not long enough'_ was heard loud and clear.

"So I've been thinking," the one called Dogsbreath sneered. "There's no way something as cool as a Night Fury should belong to a skinny little weed like you, Hiccup the Useless." He pushed forward, crowding the other's space. Clueless came from the other side, threatening as well.

Hiccup simply sighed. "You came here to learn from me. I will be happy to teach you my methods to get your own dragon." He paused and glared at them. "However, you can have Toothless when you can take him."

This pissed of Dogsbreath who shoved the smaller boy, while Clueless stuck a foot out to make sure he tripped and fell on his back. Dogsbreath lifted a foot to kick at Hiccup.

Neither had really paid attention to the dragon in their efforts to intimidate Hiccup, a bad idea. Hiccup had managed to convince his dragon not to attack everybody it seemed. He did notice the girl (Comma? Cammo? Something like that.) took a step back when he did. The dragon had lifted its head at their approach and had narrowed its eyes when they towered over its rider. The second they touched Hiccup the dragon sprang into action. Its tail flicked quickly, sending Clueless flying into one of the walls of the arena. The teen's eyes crossed and he slumped to the ground. Dogsbreath was backpedaling quickly to get away from Hiccup, which was probably the reason the swipe from the claws of the dragon only gave him some scratches, rather than disemboweling him. It did knock him to the ground, if not killing him immediately. Dogsbreath gave a shrill scream as the Night Fury bunched up, getting ready to spring and finish him.

Except that Hiccup had regained his feet and interposed himself between the two. Seeing the dragon, darkness itself, rearing up above the young man's head, Thuggory found himself reaching for a weapon and swearing slightly as he remembered Hiccup had insisted on them coming unarmed. The dragon snarled, not really at Hiccup, more at the fact that he was in the way. Hiccup stood there speaking soothingly to the dragon as it hissed and beat its wings. Thuggory was almost certain the creature was simply going to bat the boy out of the way, but then it dropped to all fours, curling around Hiccup the way it had when Hiccup had pulled the dragon off of him.

Hiccup spent a little time petting the dragon, continuing to speak soothingly as they stood away from the rest of the students. He then turned toward the class his eyes icy.

"Okay, I figured I'd have a bit of time before this lesson." He sighed, though his voice was still frigid. "I guess not. You do not try to take a dragon from the person they've chosen. You do not try to threaten a person who has been chosen by a dragon, certainly not when in the dragon's sight. If a dragon doesn't have a rider you can try to lure them to you with food or affection, but realize that they will make the choice. I've seen Vikings spend time trying to get a Nadder to come close, only to have a Nightmare or Gronkle decide they wanted the human."

He went over to where Dogsbreath was lying, panting. The other teen tried to crawl away as Hiccup knelt down to look at him, as the Night Fury was still hovering protectively over the boy. The teen was looking at Hiccup with a definite feeling of respect as Hiccup absentmindedly shoved at the dragon's nose when it came too close. Seeing a slight boy matter-of-factly dealing with a creature that had been nothing more than snarling death a short time before, made a deep impression on the rest of the class.

"Can you get up?" He asked the teen, looking both irritated and concerned. Once Dogsbreath was on his feet Hiccup went to check on Clueless. Several Berklanders had entered the arena to help the teens away as most had come running at the screams, though Thuggory noticed that none of them had dared enter before Hiccup had calmed the Night Fury. Clueless took a bit more effort to get up and out as hitting the wall had scrambled what brains he had just a bit.

Once the two of them were gone Hiccup brushed his hands off on his shirt and regarded the rest of the class again. The stiff way he held himself showed how irritated he still was.

"Okay, I'd say we're done for the day today. We'll try to start over again tomorrow, same time, same place." He announced. Before any of them could voice either agreement or otherwise, he had climbed on to the harness the Night Fury wore. He leaned forward, obviously murmuring something to the dragon, who then shot almost straight up from the arena. The two did several swoops and circles before disappearing over a ridge.

Thuggory heard a low whistle from behind him. He and the rest of the class turned and saw the male twin (He couldn't recall offhand if that was Ruffnut or Tuffnut) and Snotlout leaning against the wall near the entrance.

"So what didja do to tick off Hiccup like that? I mean that takes work." The blonde asked curiously.

"I don't think they ticked off Hiccup so much, that was way more along the lines of a pissed off Night Fury though." Snotlout said in a contemplative voice. "And it takes a bit of work to get Toothless to snap like that too."

The girl standing to the side, apart from the class, jerked her chin towards them. "The two twits who were dragged out of here decided they deserved a Night Fury more than the boy who's going to teach us. They shoved him down and the dragon tried to kill them." She gave a sniff. "Not much of a loss. Idiots."

Thuggory saw the jaws of both the Berklanders fall.

"Wait, wait… You're telling me that those two tried to get Toothless, the big black shadow that practically sits on top of Hiccup to keep others away, to come away from Hiccup?" Snotlout asked. He looked at the blond. "I dunno Tuffnut, they seemed smarter than that when we were kids."

The blond, Tuffnut, was bent over laughing too hard to respond. Snotlout swatted him in irritation and the other gasped trying to get himself under control. He was still snickering when he pulled himself up though.

"Seriously? They though all they had to do was demand Toothless and Hiccup would hand him over?" Tuffnut was almost in tears from laughing so hard. "Man, _everybody_ knows you don't separate those two. Even Astrid knows better than that and she's going out with Hiccup. Hel even _Chief Stoick_ has given up on trying to separate them for more than an hour or so. They're like, joined at the hip."

Thuggory regarded them. "It seems like everybody on the island knows how to deal with dragons, why don't you take over teaching the class today."

Tuffnut looked at him, still snickering occasionally. "Simple, Hiccup is the best. The dragons really seem to like him. Me? I got a Zippleback that's mine and my sister's, doesn't mean I get along with every dragon. Hiccup can walk up to any of them that's snarling, hissing and spitting and get it settled." He shook his head. "Not everybody can do that. If you can pick up half of the things he can do, even without the whole 'dragons love him' vibe he has, you'll know more than any of us."

Thuggory stayed to the back as the class filed out. It wasn't the most successful class, on the other hand, he was sure Hiccup wouldn't have too many challenges from his students now. And he was actually looking forward to learning from the strange Viking.

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A/N: Thuggory was the name of the son of the Chief of the Meatheads in the books, who lived right next door to the Hairy Hooligans. He was also the one who smacked Snotlout down so Hiccup could tell his plan to defeat the Green Death (Snotlout in the books, while he didn't actually try to kill Hiccup, wasn't above quietly cheering when it looked like Hiccup was going to turn up dead). His willingness to listen to Hiccup made me think he might be willing to listen a bit, rather than immediately jump to conclusions. In the books he was the same age as Hiccup and Snotlout, but I made him a bit older to give him a bit more perspective.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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When Camicazi got off of her ship to join the dragon training class, she was confused. Which wasn't a regular feeling for her. Irritation, jubilation, pride, annoyance, all of those were familiar. Confusion, hesitation? Not so well known. She had gone with her mother to the council, although the words "gone with" weren't exactly the right words to use. "Snuck onboard right before the ship left and hid in the hold until it was too late to take her back" was more like it. Fortunately her mother had simply given a big, booming laugh at her audacity, clapping her on the shoulder in a way that if Camicazi hadn't grown up receiving them would've staggered her, and announced she expected nothing less from her daughter and heir.

Back then she thought she knew what to expect. A number of babies, boys, and cranky old men (the three stages of the opposite sex as she knew it), with cowed women who didn't know enough, or weren't strong enough to leave their little crummy island and join Camicazi's tribe. She had matter-of-factly swaggered off the ship, throwing her wild, pale hair behind her shoulder with one hand. A number of boys in other ports had seen her hair as a vulnerability, a good handhold. It was generally only once they had grabbed it that they realized that the wildness hid pieces of sharpened bone and shell she'd braided into it. A smart boy let go at the first sharp pain, stupid ones held on as she whipped her head away, leaving their palms gashed and bloody.

However her swagger stuttered to a stop, sensing her mother and the rest of the escort doing the same as they took in the sight before them. Dragons. Dragons _everywhere_. It was one thing to hear that the Berklanders had somehow tamed the beasts, another to see a Gronkle buzz by with a rider on its back. Or see a flock of Terrors run by chasing a rat, apparently for fun as any of them could fly and quickly catch it.

Yes, she and the rest of her people had seen a man on a Nadder greet them on their way into port, but that was a sensible use of a dragon. You could check out incoming ships and have a way of either attacking or swiftly warning your people if the ships seemed hostile. But just letting a Monstrous Nightmare lay at ease next to a building, dozing in the sun? It was senseless. Which to Camicazi's mind was expected, in a way. After all, you couldn't expect boys to be sensible.

Camicazi wandered the village as her mother went to talk to the other Chiefs. She didn't see any reason to hang about, they wouldn't talk about anything important until everybody was there, which meant it would be boring as all Hel to be around adults. She had noticed that some of the Chiefs had brought their sons and heirs with them. She grinned and decided to see exactly how bad their fighting skills were.

That actually turned out rather fun. The expressions on the boy's faces as she easily fought them off, while making it look effortless were hilarious. She chattered at them as well. _Oh look, were you meaning to hit me that time? Too bad, so sad. What was that? A back swing or a drunken dance move? Isn't it just _so_ embarrassing to be beaten by such a titchy girl as me? Must simply be devastating to your pride._ She nattered on, working her way through their ranks until it became boring. She hadn't lost a fight yet. She got up to leave only to have one of them lunge at her with a knife, snarling that she was a just an arrogant little bitch who needed to be put in her place.

She spun around, the nasty sharp items in her hair slashing at his face. When he jerked back from that pain, she twisted the knife out of his grip with one hand and lifted another he had on his belt with the other, and then ducked down. She swept her leg out, sending him slamming to the ground. Since her mother had pounded into her head that they were here peacefully, she didn't plant the knives into his belly, instead used the two to pin him to the ground at his shoulders, the sharp blades easily cutting though the fabric of the boy's shirt and into the packed ground beneath him. Then because he'd attacked her when her back was turned, she planted her boot in the spot that always made boys whimper and cringe.

Since most of the boys were there, watching, that pretty much killed any idea of further sparring with her. She sniffed at their cowardice and left, this time unmolested.

Camicazi continued to look through the village, somewhat amazed at how peacefully the dragons had merged into it. She was already starting to not notice them walk down the lanes, or fly overhead. She saw that most of the women didn't seem too cowed, maybe that was just done in the home where the cranky old men insisted. Happening to turn her head as she wandered, Camicazi caught sight of one girl, about her own age, leaving a large home up on the hillside. She was wiping at her eyes as she left. Camicazi's lip curled. Weak, was all she thought. Crying was what babies did, and she was no baby. It was nothing more than what she had expected from a girl in a village that wasn't her own.

She'd rejoined her people for dinner that night, being hosted by the Berklanders in their Great Hall. There were whispers around her, apparently the Chief wasn't there he'd gone home as his son was still recovering from some sort of injury. Gossip passed back and forth, yes he had met with her mother, gravely greeting her and her escort with honor, but was he trying to slight them and several others who arrived today by not eating with them? Was it true his son controlled the dragons, possibly by some art learned at Loki's hand? Everyone knew he controlled a Night Fury, the offspring of Lighting and Death. No ordinary boy or man could do such a thing. Some didn't believe he'd done any such thing. Where was this rare dragon if it existed? Any tribe with any sense would be showing it off at every opportunity, _look at us we've got a Night Fury!_ The fact that they hadn't showed that it didn't exist. Other murmured comments about the unnaturalness of the dragons living among the people, and how did they know the dragons weren't actually controlling the humans? Camicazi listened intently to all of the rumors and gossip avidly.

She had mostly forgotten about the girl she'd seen the next day as she continued to wander. Camicazi was well known on her home island of Kvennland for getting into places she shouldn't and being in places she wasn't allowed. However, this was still a village, same as her own, so there weren't many places with a lock, let alone guards. The one lock she'd found to pick was to a shed which had a number of mead barrels in it. Not wanting to muddle her head in a foreign village, she left it as it was. Still trying to find something, _anything_, interesting, she started to hear a thunk-like sound. It was similar to the sound of somebody cutting firewood, but wasn't rhythmic enough to be that simple task. Unless it was some child doing it for the first time. It also seemed to be coming from the woods, which was a silly place to cut wood, most would drag the logs out first to limit the amount of carrying they had to do. Camicazi frequently bragged that she had the curiosity of ten boys, so she set off to find out what was making the noise.

She found herself entering the woods near the village as she tracked the noise. She came to a slight break in the trees, apparently one of the forest giants had fallen some time in the past, leaving an open area in which the blonde girl Camicazi had seen crying was throwing a fairly hefty axe at trees. The thunk would sound as the blade bit into one of the trunks, followed by the quiet of the girl walking over and wrenching it out again, before throwing it and repeating the cycle. The other girl's accuracy and how deeply the axe wound up in the wood each time impressed Camicazi.

"For not being from my tribe and therefore being weaker, you're not too bad. If you'd been born to my tribe you might've even been almost as good as me." Camicazi called out to her graciously.

The girl, who had just pulled the axe out of a trunk, turned to where Camicazi was leaning against a tree. "What did you call me?"

Camicazi had frowned in puzzlement. The girl really couldn't take a compliment? She sniffed, "I said that for being a cowed girl, controlled by males, you were giving a fairly good showing with that axe."

"Cowed girl?" The other had hissed through her teeth, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the axe handle tighter.

"Well, yes," Camicazi started. "I mean, if you are weak enough to show tears…" She broke off, having to duck the swing of the axe as the crazy girl lunged at her.

Camicazi pulled her sword and launched her own attack. She was quite confident of her success, after all a sword required far more skill than a simple bash and hack weapon like an axe. Except the other girl had impressive control over the heavy thing, able to switch directions and swing it into defensive positions before Camicazi could hit her. When the girl swung the axe in an overhand blow, Camicazi caught it with her blade, swearing slightly as she immediately tilted her blade to cause the axe to slide, knowing that taking the blow head on would've snapped the blade entirely. Recovering she began to swing upwards, hoping to slash at the other girl's midsection while she regained her balance from the axe swing. The other girl managed to twist aside at the last second. They continued to trade blows, both becoming more and more furious that they hadn't yet defeated the other the longer the fight dragged on.

"What is going on here?"

""What do you think you are doing?"

Two voices had boomed out over their fight. One was unfortunately familiar to Camicazi and had caused her to wince. Bertha had told her to behave. She looked over, having lowered her weapon the same way the other girl had done at the sound of the yells, to see her mother, hands on her hips, glaring at her. A man who actually managed to dwarf her mother with an enormous red beard stood beside her with his arms crossed.

"Astrid, what in the name of Hel were you thinking?" The man's voice demanded.

The girl next to her fidgeted slightly with her axe. "Sorry, Chief Stoick." She murmured. "It was just getting to me. I came out here to blow off some steam… It's just that…" she trailed off looking at the man.

The man sighed, putting one hand on his forehead, apparently seeing something in the girl's expression. "Just go back an' stay w' him. I don't trust that devil to keep him indoors if he wakes, let alone have the sense to keep him out of the air. And no more fightin' w' our guests." He added glaring at her.

Camicazi smirked as the cowed girl left, only to be smacked upside the head by her mother, who then grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt and dragged her off. It was utterly humiliating. Even more so when she was dragged to their ship and given a direct order by both her mother and Chief to stay there until everyone assembled for the council. While Camicazi would try as hard as possible to dance around her mother's orders, when the same woman used her office of Chief to give an edict, she knew better than to argue. Doing so had always ended badly for her.

Fortunately she only had to chew the walls for one day, as the tribes they'd been waiting for arrived the next day. She followed her mother up to the Great Hall, which was large enough to impress even her the first time she had seen it. Then the adults began to discuss things, and even though it somehow involved dragons and war and fighting, with so many cranky old men discussing it, it became horribly boring. She ended up leaning against the wall, tossing one of her knives and catching it just to relieve the monotony. There was a group being kept to the side in chains that she figured had something to do with the situation, but the droning on about treaties, rights, and law was putting her to sleep. Finally somebody began to shout at another and she perked up. This was when things began to get interesting. Looking out over the crowd she saw the blonde girl she'd fought before sliding in beside two adults who must've been her parents. Whatever her name was. Aldis? Asdis? Astrid? Any of the above. She decided to get into the action and began moving towards the girl as the men's voices began to get louder. Small fights were beginning to break out throughout the room. Camicazi launched her own attack at the girl, only to see her turn at the wrong moment and see her. Astrid, or whatshername, immediately grappled her, managing to get an arm around her neck without cutting herself on Camicazi's hair ornaments. Camicazi lifted her arm to slam her elbow back into the girl's midsection…

"ENOUGH!"

The word seemed to bounce off the walls, shriller than she'd expected. She turned to look at the assembled Chiefs, only to see a pathway opening as people pushed to the side to show a horribly skinny boy standing towards the back. A dragon's cry, one that had her and a number of others she saw instinctively ducking at the sound of it, seemed to be replying to the boy's shout. She heard "Night Fury! Get down!" shouted by several men. A black creature actually clung to a pillar right above her before darting down and coming beside the boy, who easily placed an arm over the creature's neck. He began to walk forward with it right beside him. There was a quiet whispering among the assembled, was that really the Dragon Master? Really? There was nothing to him!

Since Astrid had become distracted, Camicazi slammed her foot down on the other girl's foot. When Astrid started to swear she had nimbly twisted away and retreated to her mother's side.

"That's the Dragon Master? That little stick?" Camicazi heard her mother's voice boom out over the rest and she had to agree with her. The boy was obviously smaller than just about anybody in the room. Skinny too. His face was hollow and Camicazi was willing to bet he would tip over in a brisk wind. But he put his hand on the now snarling dragon and quietly stated "Toothless, no," and the dragon quieted and crooned to him. She and several others couldn't control their gasps at the sight. He stood there, so calm, in control of the room simply by standing next to such a dangerous creature.

The dragon seemed black as pitch in the Hall. Narrow, slitted eyes swept the entire council as the beast paced next to the boy. It's wings were large compared to its body, the tail fairly long with additional fins along it, though one seemed off, but she couldn't get a clear look at it to tell how as the dragon kept flicking its tail from side to side in irritation.

"I am no traitor." The boy stated calmly in answer to some of the accusations Camicazi vaguely remembered during all the shouting.

It became rather boring again with everybody simply shouting at the boy, rather than everybody shouting at each other, and the boy replying. It wasn't like anybody dared do anything to him with the dragon right next to him. She certainly wasn't stupid enough to try anything, and apparently nobody else was either. Eventually the cranky old men came to a decision, and there was somehow a decision on everybody getting lessons on how to train dragons from the skinny boy. She hadn't really been paying attention.

Camicazi's mother hadn't wasted much time in leaving, wanting to get away from the island. Once they reached home, however, she called for the tribe to assemble. She then announced how the Dragon Master had said he would train one person from each tribe. Bertha announced that for the honor of representing their tribe they would have competitions of strength, agility, and cunning among all women from fifteen to twenty-five. While it was open to any within that range, the side glance Camicazi got from her mother and Chief combined, indicated that she at least expected Camicazi to win.

Not that Camicazi really needed the reminder. She absolutely _hated_ losing. She had fought and mastered each trial. Sparring and races for strength and agility, winning games of tafl to show her cunning. She beat older women, younger girls, everybody and anybody. When the dust settled and victory awarded, Camicazi was the one on top, proudly going to represent her tribe.

And now she was back. It was slightly unnerving to be arriving this time, knowing her ship was going to sail back, that she would be alone until either it came back or she flew home on her own dragon. She stiffened her back as she stood on the docks and lifted her head. She was Camicazi of Kvennland, she showed no fear. She marched herself up the causeway her belonging in a basket swung over her shoulders.

Entering the village proper she looked around. Camicazi recognized some of the boys hanging about as ones she'd met and sparred with before the council meeting. They met her gaze warily, before going on with their business. The ones she didn't recognize were obviously trying to size her up. She glared fiercely at them, daring them to try anything. She became so busy watching the others she didn't pay as much attention to someone coming up on her side.

"Ah, you must be the student from Kvennland."

She instinctively reacted, swinging a fist at where the voice was coming from. See if they could sneak up on her, huh? As she pivoted, her fist planted itself in the middle of the skinny boy who was her soon-to-be teacher's stomach. His eyes widened and he made a slight choking sound, which was all Camicazi had time to notice before she was knocked to the dirt on her stomach, a heavy black paw on her back pinning her to the ground.

"Oh Hel," the boy gasped, recovering from her hit. "Ah, sorry!" He added a he realized his dragon was crouched over her growling. "I managed to keep him from going after most of the new people, but he's still twitchy about attacks. Toothless, off." He tugged at the dragon who backed off, but not without flexing its claws. Making sure she knew that it could've easily killed her.

She immediately bounced up, her face flaming in humiliation. First she'd been taken off guard, then unknowingly attacked her teacher. Despite her feelings of complete embarrassment she lifted her head to look him in the eye. He looked back worriedly , his hair falling awkwardly into his eyes. Camaicazi was peeved to notice that he was several inches taller than herself, even though he was one of the shorter boys she'd ever met.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking her over.

Camicazi glared back, what did he think? That she was some kind of wilting flower? "I'm fine." She snapped.

He rocked back slightly on his heels at her response, one hand going out to stabilize himself on the dragon's shoulder. She looked him over now that there wasn't a crowd between them and she could get a good look. She noticed he was missing a foot. He had replaced it with some kind of metal contraption instead of a nice simple wooden peg like anybody else would have. His hair was at the messy, too long to stay out of your face/not long enough to tie back stage, and he obviously used it to hide behind at times. He stood there will a quiet, almost shy, feeling of confidence, which was very confusing. Anybody Camicazi had known, woman or boy, boastfully would declare they were the best at such-and-such, even if they weren't. This boy simply knew he was the best at dealing with dragons, and with a Night Fury easily resting at his side there really wasn't a need for him to get into bragging fights with others.

"Um, I believe you're staying with the widow Oddny." He said carefully, like he was tip-toeing around her temper.

She still glared at him, though she took a prudent step back before doing so. See dragon? I'm glaring, not attacking. Thank you for not ripping me limb from limb. "I am Bertha's daughter and heir." She stated haughtily, though it was damn difficult to look down on someone when you were as short as she was. "I would assume I would stay with the Chief." She finished, hands on her hips. Was the boy trying to be insulting? Deliberately slighting her due to the fact she was a girl?

She thought she heard him mutter something that sounded like "Great, another one," before he pasted on a cheerful expression on his face. "Well, the Chiefs house isn't really that big, it's just me, my dad, and Toothless. I've been told your people generally didn't care to stay with men, so I made sure to ask the widow if she'd be willing to take whoever your tribe sent as a representative. Also, since everybody who's shown up so far has been the heir to their respective tribes, it prevents resentment by not having anybody stay at our house.

Craaaaap. When had it been mentioned that the skinny boy who was the Dragon Master was also the Chief's son? Probably during the boring parts of the Council meeting she'd tuned out. Dammit. She nodded to him to cover her, yet again, embarrassment. Somewhere deep inside herself she was squirming. She was better than this, making stupid mistakes right and left was _not_ what she did.

"Camicazi." She stated, thrusting her hand out to him imperiously.

"Hiccup." He answered and shook her hand. He gripped it tight enough to not be a limp handshake, yet didn't try any of the strength tests boys were so fond of.

He led her to the widow's house and made sure to check and see if she or the woman needed anything before taking his leave. The widow Oddny was a nice woman. She'd been a warrior herself, though now that she was older she stayed home. Her last child had died of an illness several years ago, and her husband several years before that during one of the dragon raids. She and Camicazi bickered that evening in a friendly way about the strengths and weaknesses of various weapons. Oddny preffering spears, while Camicazi argued that swords were vastly superior.

The next day as she left the house she saw a black form darting in the air, a whoop of pure joy obviously coming from the figure of a boy on it's back. A Nightmare and a Gronkle, both with riders, took to the air as well, looking like the three were playing together. Some sort of tag perhaps. The black dragon could seem to twist in the air in ways that just seemed amazing, able to get away from the other two without effort before speeding up and away incredibly fast. The other two followed, if not as quickly, simply enjoying a flight in the morning. She suddenly felt a fierce stab of envy. Not that she wanted any of those dragons specifically, if fact she'd rather find some kind that no one had trained yet. Even if she found another rare Night Fury she would simply be compared to Hiccup, and she wanted to be special in her own right. No, the envy was for the feeling of flight itself. She vowed to learn everything Hiccup could, or would teach. She would touch the skies, if it killed her.

However, others had apparently not taken that idea from seeing Hiccup and his dragon in the air. The first class was very entertaining. Not very useful perhaps, but watching two moronic boys get smacked around she counted as prime entertainment. She had remembered quite clearly how fast the dragon could move if it wanted to. The second day on the other hand, had simply been humiliating. If it wasn't for the fact that _everybody_ had been equally embarrassed she'd've been out for blood. She'd seen the little dragons running about, sunning themselves on the walls of the village. She'd just never realized just how maneuverable the little suckers could be. And to make it worse the girl she'd fought with before was there. She still needed to show her she was a better fighter, and tripping over boys while trying to touch a miserable little lizard was not the way to accomplish that. Then Hiccup had taken over, easily picking up the creature and showing them how to approach it calmly. Watching him instruct the itty-bitty boy who was in the class was interesting, he was firm but not insulting or smug. When she tried to get close to the Terror, following his instructions, she found it amazing that such little changes could make what seemed impossible so easy. The little dragon simply seemed to purr, obviously enjoying the attention.

The next three days they spent practicing what they had learned in the second class with different types of dragons, a Gronkle the next day, a Nadder after that, and finally a Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup showed them the ways that body language between the species was similar, and gave a lecture on each as to the various quirks each had as well. She did notice he didn't talk much about the Night Fury who still shadowed him. Then again, the way the dragon seemed to glare at any of the students, she had the idea that none of them really wanted to try and get close to it.

The sixth day the two idiots who had threatened Hiccup returned to class. They seemed pretty irritated, and most of the class aimed to stay upwind of them. They glared at everybody, daring them to say anything about their punishment. Hiccup had walked into the arena and smiled at the two as though he didn't care that they looked like they wanted to strangle him.

"Ah, good. Dogsbreath, Clueless, I'd like you to recite what you learned about tanning leather to the other students." He said, leaning against his dragon.

Both of the boys looked at him, their jaws gaping open. The one called Dogsbreath glared at him. "What do you mean? We worked and sweated in that stinking place, what are you going on about?"

Hiccup sighed, as though he wasn't surprised. "I had the tanners clearly explain exactly how leather needs to be treated in order to last the longest against dragon scales. I figured as part of your lesson you could learn it and then teach the others." He stood up from his leaning position and addressed the entire class. "I know that most of you are not crafters, if any. As such I will be making sure you memorize, by rote if necessary, exactly what you will need to tell your smiths and tanners in order to make harnesses and saddles that can stand up to the strain of flying. While you can attempt to have them simply blunder along through trial and error, I can guarantee you that it will be very painful. Water is not a cushion if you are falling from several hundred feet up, and coming loose from a saddle is one of the most terrifying experiences out there."

He straightened and stretched a bit before going over to the entrance. He walked up it and then came back down with a young Nightmare following. The dragon was obviously in a bad mood. It's tail was sweeping back and forth, its eyes narrow and glaring at all of them suspiciously. It was only perhaps a foot or two taller than Night Fury, who was watching the dragon with dislike. The Night Fury began to hiss as the Nightmare became more agitated at being in an enclosed area, even if it could leave by flying. Hiccup murmured to it, keeping it from simply leaving at once before turning to the class again.

"This is Blazingbite, a young male from the last clutch of eggs we've had. He tends to be rather temperamental," He said, as the dragon snapped its teeth about a foot over his head, causing Toothless to screech in anger. Hiccup didn't even twitch, though a number of the students jumped backwards. That dragon was doing everything but breathing fire to show how much it didn't want to be there in the arena. "Since he's not even a year old yet, he can't put out a continuous stream of fire, which makes if a bit safer to be near him, making him perfect to demonstrate the quickest way of calming an irate dragon." Hiccup finished. "Toothless, calm down," he added soothingly to the hissing and spitting Night Fury which looked close to attacking the Nightmare.

"Camicazi, would you come here?" He asked, singling her out. She lifted her head, ignoring the mutters around her. Everything they'd learned the past four days said to back away carefully from the snappish dragon in front of her. She came beside Hiccup, who had backed a bit away from Blazingbite. Hiccup smiled at her and removed something from a pouch at his hip and pressed it into her hand before backing away. She glanced down at a handful of grass. Grass? Freshly picked it looked like, but really, grass?

"Okay," he called to her, "just approach him calmly the way you've been doing. Keep your hand out though."

She managed to keep from turning around and giving him hell by pure will power, before studying the irritable dragon in front of her. Blazingbite hissed at her and snapped his jaws several times. She stiffened her spine and cautiously began to go closer. She heard Dogsbreath betting she'd get bitten and made a promise to herself to make his life miserable later. Blazingbite swayed back and forth, before he suddenly tilted his head. His nostrils flared and he seemed to perk up a bit. Suddenly she had a dragon right next to her, making the normal happy noises she'd learned the past several days and he rubbed his face against the hand holding the grass. She couldn't control her jaw from dropping. One second the Nightmare had been snarling and spitting, now it was practically a puddle at her feet. She looked up and saw that the rest of the class was equally stunned.

"Dragon grass." Hiccup stated as he gestured with another bunch of the stuff in his hands. Toothless was obviously very interested, coiling around the boy as he continued to explain, occasionally bumping against his hand. "I don't know if it's only local to our island, so bags of seed will be traveling back with you to be planted. It will calm down just about anything other than a severely injured or starving dragon. While it will calm them down, it doesn't make them completely out of it. If you were to try and attack a person and tried to distract their dragon with dragon grass, you will be the person with the injuries. I've found that the only way people actually believe me that it will work is to start with an already annoyed dragon, so I got Blazingbite to come down here. As anybody can see, he's definitely not cranky anymore."

In fact the youngster was practically rolling on his back as Camicazi rubbed the grass along his jawline. His pupils were as wide as they could be, his claws relaxed. She had to grin as the dragon looked pretty foolish at the moment.

"You will want to be careful where you wind up planting it though. Try to aim for open areas away from buildings. A lot of dragons like to roll in the patches, and there is nothing more unnerving than to have a very happy dragon accidentally roll through the wall because the patch was right next to your house." Hiccup added.

The rest of the day was spent with each student approaching the Nightmare with a bit of the grass and being amazed how even tempered he was now. Hawkspit even took a bit over to Toothless and the Night Fury deigned to allow the boy to give him a quick scratch before moving away.

Camicazi had to admit, the classes were becoming more and more interesting as time passed.

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A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Got distracted by the shiny stories from spn_j2_bigbang. I'm still working on Past is the Present, so don't worry, I'll update eventually.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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Chapter 5

Hawkspit shifted again as he tried to avoid being run over, yet again, on his way to the arena where the training was going on. It wasn't anything personal, he like all children had gotten used to avoiding being trampled by his kinfolk. Big, blustering warriors didn't really watch where they put their feet, leading to a number of panicked reactions by young mothers.

It was still kind of confusing why he was here. He'd been the fourth son of the Chief, normally nobody would've looked at him twice. He was sure he'd eventually become big and powerful as anybody, at least he was lean and strong for a nine year old. Not really bulky, but nobody in his family took that way. But three years ago he'd simply been one of the children, nothing special, who'd looked up adoringly to his oldest brother Hack, the heir. He'd been happy being a follower, planning on finding some way to support his brother once he was big too. And then the fevers came.

Once they passed he had lost a brother and a mother, and his youngest sister. He had grieved, though he'd hidden it as much as a child could to show he was a Viking. His next oldest brother he hadn't cared as much for. Hack had always been patient showing him how to swing the small practice swords, giving him critiques on his actions. Hork preferred to smack him around, yelling at him when he couldn't respond as quickly as he could. When he'd left on a spring raid and hadn't returned Hawkspit hadn't really been too upset. Then his third oldest brother Hagurk had slipped on a patch of ice of all things this past winter and smashed his head badly. He hadn't woken up.

Hawspit's father was a broken man by then, even with his remaining five daughters to support him losing so many of his family had affected him badly. He'd attended the meeting because he knew that doing otherwise might make other tribes think them weak. He hadn't paid much attention to the whole thing, but had come back to their southern isle with the news of the Dragonmaster of Berk being willing to take students. Since the raids had never been that great a problem on their isle as the ones to the north, most of the warriors saw no reason to bother with such nonsense. Hawspit's father however did see that if everyone around them knew the secrets and they didn't, well, it wouldn't end well. His father had decided to send him, mostly because of his youth. The Chief had been worried the proven warriors of the tribe wouldn't take the lessons being taught by such a weak looking person seriously. Hawkspit had been thrilled to be chosen, swearing on the graves of their family that he would bring the knowledge back, that he would listen and learn everything he could. His melancholy father had actually smiled at his vows, making Hawkspit practically float to the ship to bring him to Berk.

Hawkspit had been left behind during the meeting, so seeing the dragons flying overhead had amazed him. He didn't really remember the few raids they'd had when he was young, the last had happened when he was six, and it had blurred with the grief he'd had from losing his mother, brother, and sister. Not to mention he'd been kept inside at the time, so they hadn't really affected him much. So he watched the dragons soaring with their riders with almost no prejudice. The Monstrous Nightmare that had swooped by, causing a number of the sailors to jump and swear, had made him laugh in delight.

Seeing the dragons out and about in the village itself had been yet another amazement. He hadn't really been paying attention to the mutters of "unnatural" and "cursed" from the sailors, too busy twisting his head in all directions to try and see every dragon he could. He vaguely remembered Nadders and Gronkles, the two who had most often raided his island, but blurry memories, usually in the darkness, were weak in comparison to seeing them in broad daylight. And with the sight of the brightly colored Nightmares and strange Zipplebacks and the Terrors zipping about, he felt overwhelmed. He was so engrossed he didn't even see the young man in front of him until he ran into him.

"Whoa!" The man yelped and stumbled, almost falling. Hawkspit looked up, feeling his face flush in humiliation at running into somebody. It was so childish. The man wasn't very tall, skinny though and missing one foot. "Where you heading in such a hurry?" He asked him with a slight smile. He had a friendlier face than Hawkspit was used to seeing, not that his people were cruel, but they hid their emotions far more than this man did.

"Um, I'm here for the training."Hawkspit managed. "I think I'm supposed to find the Dragon Master, but I got distracted, and I'm sorry about that, but seeing all the dragons it was just so, so…"

"Easy, easy!" The man said laughing now as Hawkspit began to babble apologies. "You're in luck at finding the Dragon Master," here the man's mouth quirked somewhat ruefully, "I'm him."

Now Hawkspit was completely mortified. Here he was, probably the youngest person to be sent here, he knew he would have to show himself as being almost perfect so nobody would look down on his tribe for sending someone so young, and here he was almost knocking down his teacher. He began to stammer out more apologies only to have them waved off.

"Don't worry about it. I've knocked plenty of people down when I was distracted, or been knocked down when I was overlooked. And if I'm not knocking people over, Toothless probably is."

Hawkspit was rather puzzled at what was toothless and how something without teeth was strong enough to knock people over. The only people he knew without teeth were the elders, and they doddered about with about as much strength as a fly. Then his eyes widened as a great black mass separated from the shadows beside the building the two of them were near to pace next to the man he was talking to. Brilliant green eyes regarded him imperiously before the mouth opened in a yawn. Hawkspit was shocked to see no teeth in the maw, until they suddenly sprang from the gums as the dragon snapped his jaws shut.

"Decided to get up I see." The man regarded the dragon with obvious fondness. "Lazy lizard." He scratched the dragon's head, as the dragon curled around him. Hawkspit jumped as a black tail thumped between him and the man. The man rolled his eyes in obvious exasperation, it was still strange to see somebody who showed so much on his face as this man did, and sighed. "I really don't think this kid is going to try to knife me y'know. You don't have to pull the big impressive Night Fury with _everybody_."

He turned back to Hawkspit and smiled again. "So you're here for the training? Great, I was about to start in a day or so. You might be the last to arrive." His face clouded slightly. "At least from the last tribe willing to give this a shot. There's still a few homes open who will take in a trainee, and there's the barracks if you want to stay there. The arena where you'll get lessons is over that a way," He gestured in a direction away almost the same as the harbor, "And please, please call me Hiccup. Sir, I suppose if you want to be formal, but please don't call me Dragon Master. It just sounds so, so," He waved his hands around causing the Night Fury beside him to duck slightly to avoid having one hand smack him in the eye, "overdramatic."

Hawkspit smiled back shyly. This person was definitely not like Hack. Enthusiasm shone from him, and he seemed likely to be patient, or at least not likely to smack him hard if he made mistakes.

He got settled with a family and that was comforting. They had four children, one that was closer to his teacher's age, but the others were Hawkspit's age or younger. They seemed amazed that he was willing to take the responsibility of learning the training for his whole tribe. It was nice though being around other kids, it kept him from missing his little sisters as much, and was nice to have a woman mother him, though his older sisters had taken on that role after their mother had died. He figured a family was better than the barracks, he'd seen the other students and they were all much older than he was, closer to their teacher's age, or even older. He would've been out of place. It caused him to worry that he wouldn't be able to learn as well as they would.

The first class had been terrifying. The Night Fury had been impressive when he'd seen it, but not really scary. He knew from hearing stories that they were dangerous and extremely mysterious and destructive, but all he'd seen was a well-known friend of the Dragon Master. Seeing the speed and strength the dragon displayed in attacking the two men who'd for some reason decided to try to intimidate their teacher had been eye-opening. The way it had shrieked its anger had made him want to turn and run from it in terror. Run out of the arena, through the village and down to the harbor to find a ship willing to take him back home. Then the Dragon Master had calmed it down, and how Hiccup could consider his title overdramatic baffled the boy. He had to be touched by the gods to get the offspring of lightning and death to listen to him so easily.

The second class had been exhausting. It had been pretty obvious to him that the Terrible Terror was agile enough to avoid all of them for as long as it cared to. Especially with all of them spending most of the time tripping over each other. He'd gotten kicked in the side once when he'd ducked a swing from one of the other students, only to cause another to trip over him. After that he'd retreated to the side of the arena. Then being pulled out from the rest of them to be used for a demonstration had been something he'd been horrified by. What if he looked like a complete idiot? What if he screwed up completely in front of all of these people who were his elders? He'd practically been squirming in embarrassment until Hiccup walked him through how to get close to a dragon without upsetting them. Then he'd been simply amazed. The feeling of a warm, relaxed weight had been the best thing ever as he looked down at the calm Terror regarding him easily. It had been so simple once Hiccup had shown him. Seeing the others in the class manage it had been fun.

Once Hiccup had told them to practice, right before flying off on his Night Fury, he'd immediately took off to try the techniques on the other dragons he'd seen in the village. He was pretty sure he'd gotten close to almost every dragon on the island. The Terrors would flock around you once you'd shown them you weren't going to hurt them. You couldn't get rid of them if you happened to give one a piece of food. The Gronkles seemed rather eager for a scratch, but not enough to get up to get one. The Nadders cocked their heads to look at you and always preened whatever scales you had touched. The Nightmares were the most standoffish, but he managed to sit perched on a rock near a group of them, watching since they didn't seem to want him close enough to pet them.

He listened that night to the other trainees. Most seemed rather baffled by their teacher. He didn't act like a Viking. He didn't brag, or order, or even swagger around. Yes he'd stood up to the two idiots who'd tried to threaten him, but otherwise didn't really seem to put himself forward. He could obviously control one of the most dangerous breeds of dragons, yet didn't seem to think it was anything special. It confused them, and some of the ones closest to their teacher's age seemed to find that as a kind of defect. Hawkspit was just happy their teacher was so good at showing what he wanted.

They spent several days with Hiccup going over each breed in specific terms of their behavior. It was fascinating to him to hear about each kind in detail. The Gronkles and Nadders seemed to love the attention, the Nadders kept twisting and turning to show themselves in the best light. The Monstrous Nightmares were the flightiest, high strung and aloof. The Zipplebacks were very strange, one head might like you, while the other might try to intimidate you. Hawkspit didn't really like them and was glad they seemed to be a northern breed. He soaked up the information, scribbling notes in a book he was able to get from Hiccup, apparently the young man had a number of notebooks, at night after each class.

The next class had them learning about a grass that had amazing effects. He was so surprised when the angry Nightmare had calmed down at the smell of it being held by the girl Camicazi. It had been fun to see how it got almost goofy, rolling around looking kind of drunk when he'd approached. He'd even been brave enough to take a few strands over to where the Night Fury stood with the Dragon Master. He'd been thrilled when the dragon had allowed him to give him a scratch on the chin when he'd held the grass out.

Today he wondered what they were going to learn. It was always something interesting.

"Man, when are we going to fly? Isn't that why we're here, to get on a dragon and fly?"

That was muttered by a rather haughty teen named Rockfall. He'd been annoyed to find out every other trainee was the heir to their tribe. He seemed to love to be able to lord it over those without such a rank, and he'd already had several tussles with other teens on the island who had taken offense at his attitude. He'd simply sneered at Hawkspit, the idea of someone so young being here seemed to irritate him. While the other trainees didn't seem to like him anymore than the teens of Berk, there were several agreeing comments.

When Hiccup showed up he was carrying a pile of leather and a bag that looked like it had leather working tools.

"Okay, I know everybody has been getting impatient at not getting into the air, so this is the last step before doing so." He gave a slight grunt as he dumped the pile in front of the students. "You're each going to learn the theories of making a safety harness by making your own."

"A safety harness? What kind of a weakling needs safety anything, we're Vikings, we laugh at danger." Hammerthew scoffed.

Hiccup sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Hammerthew, your people have horses right? And you have races with the other nearby tribes every few years?"

"Yes." Hammerthew stated proudly. Horses were hard to keep in the northern isles which were smaller and rockier than the southern ones, and previously less prone to dragon attacks.

"Did you ever ride bareback in a race?"

"No, don't be stupid. You'd break your neck if you fell… Oh." A thought had obviously just dawned by Hammerthew's expression.

"Exactly. Except with riding dragons you have several hundred or even a thousand feet to fall, rather than five or six." Hiccup continued. "Not to mention that it is windy up there," he pointed up, "just because there's a light breeze down here doesn't mean it's not blowing like crazy up there. The dragons will shift to take advantage of the changing winds. With a safety harness attaching you to them, you will keep up. Without one…" The young man made a diving motion with his hand. "Trust me it's terrifying to lose your seat and see the ground coming up from below far too fast."

Several of the trainees looked slightly queasy at the thought. Including Hammerthew.

"So I'll go over the basics and how you need to gauge how to fit a harness based on somebody's build." Hiccup snorted. "As many different ones as I've made I think I could make them in my sleep."

Hiccup went from person to person, showing them how to measure the leather, how to tell if there were any weaknesses in it that might stretch or even break in a completed harness. He grinned slightly at Hawkspit as he followed what the others had done in measurements and corrected him gently.

"You're going to want to make these longer, here and here. And make this bit wider here than you need for now" Hiccup pointed out the places. "You can cinch them down for now, but this way you won't need to make a new harness every year, it'll grow with you for a bit."

Hawkspit took in what he was saying eagerly. The rest of the trainees had finished cutting and were now attempting to sew the pieces together with varying levels of success. Hawkspit quickly lost track of how many times he'd pricked his fingers.

"Why would you even know this to start with? I thought you were apprenticed to the blacksmith?" One of the teens asked, Splatt Hawkspit though his name was, after they'd managed to completely tangle the thread they were working with, having to cut it out to start over.

"I was. But, whenever I wanted to know how something was done he'd hand me off to one of the masters of that craft or a day or a week. I think he was happy I seemed interested in everything, though according to him it was a way of not having to answer the several thousand questions I had a day for a little bit." Hiccup had brought out his own harness and seemed to be going over it and inspecting it. He had sat down and leaned against the ever-present Night Fury who had followed him. The rest of the trainees had formed a rough semi circle around them.

"So how many trades do you know?" One of the older men looked bewildered.

"Um," Hiccup cocked his head thinking. "Well, smithing obviously. Including silver and gold, what little there is here. I've kind of taken over that since my hands are better at details than Gobber's. Armor work I know the basics of. Leathermaking I'm good at, and sewing, mostly because it's rather difficult for a child to fight through the snows midwinter to the nearest woman's home to stitch a tear you just got in the knee of your trousers. I can cook most things, or at least well enough that it's edible. I studied sailmaking and how to make nets. Learned the theory at least behind ship building, for some reason they never let me try to make one. Picked up a bit of pottery making and read a book one of the traders brought back about glass making, but never had the time or materials to try it."

The group stared at the skinny man leaning against the dragon as he seemed to be thinking. One craft alone was generally enough for any man or woman to know, let alone it seemed like every one of them. Most simply focused on their fighting ability. Hiccup seemed to notice the stares suddenly.

"What?" He asked looking bewildered.

There were several coughs, and everybody studiously looked down at the harness they were working on. Hawkspits mind was stunned. He knew the very basics of sword work, but the idea of trying to learn so many different crafts made his head spin.

"So why all of this?" One of the older men, Dirtgrub, asked waving at their teacher.

"Why the training? The learning? What?" Hiccup asked confused.

"Why did you even think peace between humans and dragons was possible?" The man clarified.

"Well, I didn't at first." Hiccup replied. "I thought most of what happened was common knowledge?"

"Maybe here on your own island, the rest of us just know that suddenly, practically overnight Berklanders were riding dragons. Then there was that disagreement between you and Dornar." Dirtgrub said with a shrug. "Doesn't make much sense to me."

"Ah." Hiccup nodded. "Well it started when I shot down a Night Fury." The dragon, who had been apparently sleeping, opened one eye to look at his rider, before curling his tail around, pressing Hiccup closer to his side, causing the young man to huff out his breath. Hiccup laughed, shoving at the tail. "I didn't know what was going to happen," He scolded the dragon.

All of the older men were looking rather suspicious at the claim, even with the evidence in front of them.

"I'm sure you've noticed I'm not particularly burly." Hiccup's mouth twisted sarcastically. "So I spent my time using the bits and pieces I'd learned to make inventions that would overcome my shortcomings." He grimaced. "There were a number of failures." Dogsbreath and Clueless made smothered snorting sounds. "Anyway, the last one worked. I hit something. Not that anybody believed me."

"I went out to find what fell, and came across the Night Fury, tangled in the ropes my contraption had thrown. I was ecstatic. I'd brought down a dragon no other Viking had before." He still had a slightly twisted smile on, even as he had straightened his back. The dragon behind him huffed, and he twisted to run a hand along the dragon's head. "So there I was with a dragon before me, knowing all I needed to do was kill it, and figuring then everybody would accept me then."

He paused. "Except I couldn't. I couldn't kill the dragon. He looked at me, and I looked back and I knew that I wouldn't kill him. I turned to leave, but I knew that if I did then someone else from the village might stumble across him, and kill him, which would still be my fault. So I cut him free."

There were several loud gasps, noticeably from the older men who'd fought dragons for several years.

"Yeah, not the smartest move." Hiccup stated, leaning back again. "Well, the Night fury was immediately on his feet, knocking me to the ground and pining me there. We stared at each other, I don't know what he saw, but I was certain I was going to the after life. Then he screamed at me, I think my ears are still ringing from that buddy," Hiccup said to the dragon behind him. The dragon lifted its head to regard him, before huffing into his face. "Gaack! Fish breath!" Hiccup waved his hand in front of his face. "Then he left. The next day during my first day of dragon training Gobber told us that a dragon always goes for the kill. Except… The Night Fury hadn't."

He shrugged. "I aways had a habit of picking at things when they didn't make sense. Drove my father and Gobber right up the wall at times. So I went back to where the Night Fury had landed. I wander a bit further, not really expecting to find anything, when I came across a cove. It was deep, and that's when I saw the Night Fury again. He was stuck, because of me." Here Hiccup stroked the tail that was still lying across his lap. It shifted a bit and Hawkspit was able to see the reason it had seemed to look strange, one of the fins was replaced with an obviously man-made fin. Hawkspit looked to either side of him and noticed that not much work was being done on the harnesses as everybody listened to the story. Even Dogsbreath and Clueless seemed to be fascinated.

"I'd managed to ground him. It was a shocking thing to me. I eventually returned and tried to find out what I could about Night Furies, still trying to figure out why he hadn't killed me. Not that there was much. 'Expect to die' pretty much summed it all up." Hiccup shrugged. "But I knew that I had brought down the dragon, that he was injured and trapped. Likely to still die, if only slower that a knife thrust to the heart. So I went back, with a fish."

"A fish." Camicazi stated flatly. "You went back where there was an injured, hungry dragon, and you had a fish?"

Hiccup laughed. "Okay, yeah now it seems crazy, but I don't know… I needed to do something. Then I climbed down to the bottom of the cove through a narrow crack. I don't know how long he was watching me before I saw him. I offered the fish and he took it. Then he shared it." Here Hiccup grimaced. "Regurgitated fish, my favorite."

Several of the teens made gagging sounds. "And you ate it?" Rockfall asked.

"Yup, he sat there watching me to make sure I did. I spent the rest of the afternoon there, though after sharing his fish, Toothless didn't seem to want me near. Then we had a moment of connection. I can't explain it in any way that would be understandable. But I knew that he would never hurt me, and that I could trust him completely."

Hawkspit tried to imagine that. Being able to trust something that should've been trying to kill you so completely. By the others expressions they thought Hiccup had taken leave of his senses. He felt rather envious of the connection Hiccup and the dragon still showed, in small ways every moment. The dragon always was there, to the point that most of the trainee's no longer really noticed it. Whenever Hiccup stumbled due to his leg, the Night Fury automatically was there to support him.

"Then, well everything started to get a bit overwhelming. That night I realized that as a friend I couldn't leave him crippled, and began to try to fix what I had broken. I found myself spending half my time in Dragon Training, learning to kill dragons, then going out to Toothless and spending the rest of the day learning to understand him. Trying to get us into the air, playing, just spending time together. Over time things started to get mixed up. I used what I learned with Toothless in training, and the dragons responded to it. I'm not sure why nobody seemed to notice that the dragons were unharmed when I brought them down, but everybody just seemed so surprised I guess it passed their minds."

Hiccup seemed to be lost a bit in his memories. "Then I began to realize that I was becoming noticed for being good at training. I started having to make excuses to escape to the cove. I began trying to not draw attention to myself in training because I knew that I couldn't kill a dragon in the final exam, but the dragons were already starting to respond to me, searching me out and practically throwing themselves at my feet for a scratch or bit of dragon grass. No matter what I did things seemed to be bringing me to the point where I needed to make a decision. And then I won highest marks. By then me and Toothless had actually had a true flight, soaring through the air like we were meant to be there. I actually planned on leaving, we could be in the air and away in no time. But, we were discovered."

Hiccup snorted, "and by the person I thought would be the least understanding. Astrid found me a Toothless, and of course saw it as the betrayal I guess it was. But I was able to get her to see the way I did, and that made me hope that I could show the rest of the island."

"Then we found the nest. And the huge, I mean insanely huge, dragon that lived there controlling the others. It was terrifying beyond belief. I knew there was no way that our village could destroy it. I doubt every island's tribes warriors together would've been anything more than a meal to it." Hiccup shuddered, as the rest of the trainee's leaned forward in fascination.

"I knew I had to show that we didn't have to fight dragons, and I was running out of time. I decided to show everyone during my final exam. I would show that I could approach a It seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't expect someone to smack a hammer on the bars of the arena and agitate it to the point of attacking right before I could touch it. Almost had my arm bitten off." Hawkspit couldn't avoid gasping. He heard several others doing the same. "I was trapped, every time I tried to leave the arena the Nightmare managed to get in front of me. I was knocked to the ground and pinned by the Nightmare. Then…" He paused, giving a fond smile to the dragon beside him, "Toothless appeared."

Hawkspit's eyes widened. But Hiccup told them the dragon couldn't fly with out help? That it'd been trapped in the cove.

"I still don't know how he got there. I doubt I ever will, but he suddenly blasted a hole in the bars of the arena and was there, attacking the Nightmare, driving her away from me. He went into a protective crouch near me, I think several of you have seen that side yes?" There were several chuckles from those who hadn't been knocked about by the dragon. "Unfortunately my tribe wasn't willing to listen to me and all piled in to attack him. Toothless of course responded seeing them rushing at us. But eventually, he was brought down by too many men piling on him after I asked him not to fire. I felt horrible. Then there was yelling between me and my father, he disowned me and left with Toothless to find the nest."

Now everybody was looking at him incredulously. All of them had seen how Hiccup was respected in the village, the idea that he'd been disowned, cast out, stunned them. Hawkspit leaned forward, wanting to hear how he'd gotten out of this. He wasn't the only one. Camicazi was looking at Hiccup like she just realized he was insane. Thuggory looked stuptified.

"I had some sense knocked into me after that, or possibly out of me considering what I planned." He grinned at them. "I did my first class that day. Consider yourselves lucky, they got a pretty basic rundown due to desperation. If you want to know what riding on a dragon just holding on to a rope is like, ask Astrid or Fishlegs. Maybe the twins or Snotlout if they're feeling honest."

Then Hiccup went into a detailed telling of the fight against the enormous dragon at the nest. His hands weaved around as he described the way they had flown around the dragon. His voice dropped when he described how Toothless had sunk along with a ship, rising when he told of his father's rescue of the dragon, and acceptance of him. He talked about the deadly game of chase he and the Night Fury played, and how they lured the huge dragon in to an ambush. And the horrifying end which all Hiccup really remembered was losing his seat on the saddle and falling into flames.

Once he finished everybody seemed to blink, coming back to themselves. Hiccup looked around and grinned.

"You do know that you're not getting into the air until those harnesses are done right?"

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A/N: I had actually planned on switching back to Hiccup's POV for this chapter, but so many people asked for Hawkspit's point of view that I decided to try and see things from his point of view. Hope you enjoyed.

Also I can easily see the Vikings of Berk picking up the habit of moving their hands around to describe their flights on dragon back. If you ever have watched a show on History Channel or Miltiary History, every time you see a pilot talking about a dogfight, they're moving their hands around to describe the flight. This is what I'm picturing Hiccup looking like as he's describing the fight against the queen dragon.

And clicks aren't registering again. Darn you to heck Fanfiction . net traffic system *shakes fist impotently*


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

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Chapter 6

Hiccup kept his face calm even as he wanted to scream in frustration inside. Since he didn't want to put his inexperienced students on dragons and just hope they didn't fall off, he'd talked to his friends and gotten them to agree to double flights of them and a student. While his own tribe had more or less just gotten on dragons and worked out the kinks of the system while he'd been unconscious from the fight with the Queen, if they'd fallen off it wouldn't have caused a war between tribes. Not to mention the sheer desperation due to the ships having been burned during the fight. With his students he was determined to return them with a minimum of injuries. His friends had been enthusiastic with the idea of helping, the twins and Snotlout seemed a little _too_ eager, but Hiccup had managed to get them to promise no acrobatics at least on the first flight.

He also wanted the flights to be on fairly well behaved dragons who were connected to their riders. None of the students seemed to have formed bonds with any of the unclaimed dragons in the village except Hawkspit, who had Blazingbite of all dragons following him around. Hawkspit was of course thrilled. However Blazingbite was still growing, and Hiccup wasn't about to put somebody on a half grown dragon. A person didn't ride a half grown colt, and Hiccup didn't plan on having people change that for dragons. A bonded dragon paid more attention to their riders than an un-bonded one. Maybe none of them had quite the connection he had with Toothless, but the others were still close. He really didn't want the first flight class a scene with dragons doing whatever they felt and his students not knowing what was going on.

As there were five dragons available (he'd been able to persuade Toothless with a large pile of salmon), but fourteen trainees, he'd organized a drawing to put them in order of their flights. Then he'd had another to see what order of dragons they rode. It had taken a while, and been a bit complex at times to keep overlaps from happening and nobody was completely happy, but nobody was completely furious either so Hiccup counted it as a win.

Hiccup had hoped his first flight he and Toothless had would be somebody he was relatively easy with. Hawkspit would be a good choice, Toothless seemed to like the boy. Thuggory would be fine, the older man's level headedness had made him kind of a spokesperson for the older students and his acceptance of Hiccup had made his job a lot easier. But no. The fates couldn't be so kind. He had Clueless.

The larger, rather hulking teen was at least slightly better than Dogsbreath. Clueless' main fault was that he was more of a follower, as shown by his friendship with Dogsbreath. Hand him a battleaxe and aim him at the enemy, you were good. Ask him to make a decision within three days about what shirt to wear, and you'd be waiting a while. While Hiccup wasn't the best person to criticize someone's leadership abilities (Gods knew he was still bewildered sometimes by the fact that his own people had decided he would turn out well), he'd actually heard rumors that this was Clueless' last chance to prove himself before being passed over for his younger brother. Clueless was a good Viking warrior; broad, sturdy, and powerful, but he was an awful leader.

So while Clueless could've been worse, that wasn't the reason he wanted to scream. The reason was sitting next to him. Looking cute.

Toothless had his most adorable behaviors on display at the moment as he regarded Clueless. His earflaps were perked up, his eyes wide and round with a cheerful encouraging croon emanating from his throat. It was only Hiccup's long experience with his dragon that showed him the pure devil that was hiding in those oh so innocent eyes as they gazed at the other Viking.

"_You are a lying liar who lies!"_ Hiccup hissed out the side of his mouth at the dragon beside him. He knew, just _knew_ the dragon hadn't yet forgiven Clueless or Dogsbreath for their attack on him.

One of Toothless' earflaps twitched, smacking him. Then the devious creature actually had the gall to tilt his head so he looked up appealingly at Clueless and chirped. There was no other way to describe the sweet sound he made invitingly. His wings even fluttered, looking cute.

Clueless on the other hand was showing the first sign of intelligence Hiccup had ever seen, regarding the sweet looking dragon with apprehension.

Unfortunately everybody else was watching as well. Hiccup's "friends" were doing their best to stifle their laughter, knowing that this was far outside of Toothless' normal behavior. Not that the Night Fury couldn't be silly, he just generally only did it around Hiccup, or maybe Astrid. The last time he'd been this ridiculous in front of this many people had involved a whole field of dragon grass. Most of Hiccup's class seemed confused, since to their eyes Toothless simply seemed happy. Deceitful dragon. Astrid's eyes were dancing as she bit her lip to keep from laughing. She knew exactly what the dragon was likely planning, having been on the receiving end of it once. She gave him a sympathetic look though.

While Toothless needed him to fly, and yes while technically he could just refuse to adjust the fin and therefore keep the dragon from trying anything, he tried to avoid it. First off he would only throw the dragon's flight off, rather than stop it, which if both were lucky wouldn't involve a crash. Secondly, Toothless could sulk like nothing Hiccup had ever known. If he interrupted the dragon's fun, their next flight together would probably be even more dramatic and acrobatic than if he'd let Toothless do as he please in the first place.

Hiccup sighed, there wasn't really anything he could do, best to get this over with. And hope Toothless didn't wind up scaring the rest of the students out of ever going dragon riding again. He grabbed a hold of the saddle, feeling Toothless automatically shift to make it easier for him to get on. Well, whatever evil the dragon planned, it obviously wasn't directed at him. The dragon didn't move much when Clueless gracelessly clambered on to the saddle and attached his harness to it.

The other four students were on the backs of their respective dragons, with Snotlout, Astrid, and the reast looking to Hiccup for the signal to go in the air. He gave it and the other dragons lifted into the sky, beating their wings steadily as they circled to gain height. Except for Fishlegs' Gronkle, who buzzed about like a drunken bumblebee on takeoffs. Toothless however hadn't left the ground. The Night Fury gave a lazy stretch, shifting the muscles along his shoulders before slowly unfurling his wings. Hiccup felt his stomach drop. Toothless was definitely up to something, he hated letting the other dragons get ahead of him. The rest of the trainees seemed puzzled that the three of them weren't in the air yet.

"What d'you haveta do? Hit it to get it moving?" Clueless grunted mockingly, obviously feeling more confident since nothing had happened. "I thought this thing-"

Whatever he thought about Night Furies was lost as Toothless sprang into the air with a powerful down sweep of his wings. He beat them strongly, seeming to grip the air and climb it with each sweep, as they shot straight up. They passed the other students and riders in seconds, leaving them far behind as Toothless kept up the speed of his ascent. With Night Furies being one of the few dragons capable of flying straight up, none of them had a chance of catching them either. Hiccup could feel Clueless' fingers digging into his shoulder, though he was grateful the other boy trusted his harness enough to not wrap around him the way Astrid had. Granted deep, deep within the recesses of his mind Hiccup would admit he'd enjoyed that contact. Never aloud of course, he wasn't stupid. But every so often it might sneak into a dream of his, and he generally woke up feeling pleased afterward. The same thing with Clueless was the sort of thing that would show up in nightmares you woke screaming from.

Which, speaking of Clueless, he wasn't screaming. Oh no, the high-pitched noise coming from the other teen could only be described as a screech. Toothless finally leveled off, experience of being at heights like this let Hiccup distinguish the moving dots below them as the rest of the class. He tightened his grip on the saddle, knowing that Toothless wasn't just going to bring them up here for a nice view of the island.

When Toothless partially folded one wing, sending them into a steep spinning dive, Hiccup only sighed while Clueless whimpered. Really though, while it was a steep dive, and yes that sudden turn there at the end caused the safety straps to pull at them unnervingly, if he hadn't had Clueless strapped on behind him, apparently trying to break his collarbone with his fingertips as tight as he was holding on, he would've been whooping and urging the dragon on. Toothless abruptly spread his wings, catching a breeze that sent them shooting upwards again.

Hiccup held on tighter as they ascended. It always surprised him how much work it was to ride Toothless, the dragon could and did perform maneuvers that no other species could hope to match. The speed and agility did however put a heck of a lot of strain on him during their normal flights. One like this one, where the dragon was trying to out do himself, would leave him as tired as if he'd run the length of the island of Berk. Without his prosthetic.

He couldn't help the grin though as they did a mid-air flip and seemed to hover in the air for a second before plunging in a dive upside down, as Clueless yelled. He was very glad the other teen couldn't see his face the way he was hunched over the saddle.

However when one dive came awfully close to the cliff-side, to the point Hiccup was surprised the dragon hadn't scraped _both_ of them off, he felt Clueless had been through enough.

"Alright bud, that's enough." He murmured quietly to the humming dragon. He'd felt the vibrations of the dragon's vocalizations during the flight, sounds that generally translated as happy. They turned deeper, more rumblely in discontent, but Toothless did a sharp wing over and headed back to the field where they'd left the rest of the class.

Toothless had gain height on the way back, but Hiccup could see that the others either had landed or were about to. While Toothless had stopped his acrobatics on the way back, he still had enough stubbornness to go into a crazy steep dive for their landing. Hiccup gritted his teeth as the ground came up almost too fast, even for him. The Night Fury flipped his wings out at the last second, beating them furiously to slow himself as he touched down. The speed of the change caused the unprepared Clueless to whiplash bad enough that Hiccup winced in sympathy.

It didn't seem to bother the other teen too much as he rapidly unlatched his harness and slid from the dragon's back looking slightly dazed. Dogsbreath was looking at Hiccup and Toothless with a definite expression of dread. He wasn't next to ride Toothless, according to the schedule he wasn't riding with them until the second the second session tomorrow, but with the way Toothless was watching him Hiccup resigned himself to another crazy ride.

"So, I thought we were taking it easy the first flight?" Tuffnut drawled from where he leaned with his sister against the side of their Zippleback. Ruffnut punched him in the arm.

Snotlout snicked from where he sat, still astride Fireworm. Fishlegs looked worried and Astrid seemed as amused as the rest. The class on the other hand seemed to look at Toothless with extreme trepidation. Especially Rockfall, who was supposed to ride with them next.

"Okay, then. How about we take a short break, get some food, maybe a drink… and so on before the next set?" Hiccup asked, clapping his hands together and gripping them, while smiling at the class as though nothing unusual had happened. Which, given Toothless' moodiness hadn't. Everybody stared back. "Right. Then we'll meet back here shortly after noon."

The students filed off, those who had been airborne chattering about it to those who hadn't. Except Clueless, who still seemed somewhat stunned.

Snotlout and the twins were still snickering.

"So what's up with your Fury, man?" Snotlout asked.

Hiccup looked at his dragon, who seemed back to his even-tempered, or at least relatively so, self. "I don't think he likes Clueless."

Astrid walked over to him, bumping her shoulder against his, before leaning against Toothless beside him. She reached over and scratched the dragon above his eyes, as Toothless hummed. "I take it he and Dogsbreath still haven't apologized for trying to smack you around, huh?" She asked Hiccup even as Toothless' eyes crossed in pleasure from her scratches.

"Seriously? He's still ticked off about that?" Snotlout looked at the dragon warily. "Hey, about all that stuff I did as a kid? FYI, sorry about it."

Hiccup snorted. While he and Snotlout had a rather unpleasant relationship as small children, it had eventually evolved into neutral disinterest as they aged (at least as long as Hiccup hadn't destroyed anything recently), and since Toothless had never _seen_ Snotlout act like, well, a snot around him the dragon didn't seem to have any trouble with him or the twins, Hiccup's other headache growing up.

"Hopefully he's gotten it out of his system." Hiccup continued, giving Toothless a dark look. The dragon flicked one of his ear-flaps idly, looking away. "But, if he hasn't I'm going to need food to keep up my strength to deal with his acrobatics."

Tuffnut actually turned slightly green. "You can eat and then fly like that? Like right after?"

"No kidding." Ruffnut added. " 'Dangerous Weapon' over there can only eat a bit of bread and some water before a long flight. Still amazed I haven't been covered in vomit yet."

"Shut up." Tuffnut shoved at his sister.

"You shut up." She punched him in the gut.

The other teens almost absentmindedly stepped over or around the two as they began to tussle on the ground. It kind of surprised Hiccup. He'd never noticed Tuffnut getting nauseous, but it was something the other teen would probably try to hide. He, rather amazingly, had never been sick while riding Toothless, despite the dragon's tendency to dramatics in the air. Sick with fear yes, during both the fight against the Queen and Dornar. Sick with pain yes, not every test flight had landed in something soft. But never sick to his stomach, though he had heard of the complaint from several of the older warriors.

The group passed the harbor. It was busier than usual. While Astrid had arrived a while back, the rest of the fleet she had gone with had just recently arrived as they had trailed behind being loaded down with half of the wealth of Dornar that the other tribe had been forced to forfeit due to their attack of Berk. The sheer amount of it had stunned Hiccup when he had heard. He really hadn't paid much attention to how much there may have been around when he and Toothless had been marched to the Great Hall in chains. He'd heard that the southern tribes were wealthy due to their raiding on the peoples even further south, but until he saw what was considered half their wealth he really hadn't understood. Berk had never been a very wealthy tribe. In a "good" year during the time of the dragon attacks they would trade what wool survived from the remaining sheep along with dragon bones, claws, and scales they'd collected for grain and ore. Now that they were at peace with the dragons there was more wool to be traded, and with the dragons helping with the fishing there was salt fish as well, but in either case they generally managed to get by, if not prosper, and even his father had only one or two pieces made from gold.

Now with the treasures that the ships brought back, even with Stoick claiming a chunk of it due to both his status as chief, and the fact that his bloodline had been the one first wronged, there was still enough to split between all the families on Berk to give everyone a bit of finery. It amazed Hiccup that even all of Berk's wealth gathered up and split in half wouldn't equal a quarter of what had been sent. The idea that Avric had risked all of this, just for the idea of controlling the tribes dumfounded him.

They made their way to the Great Hall of Berk, each grabbing a plate of whatever was being served for the day. Tuffnut glared at Ruffnut as he grabbed an overflowing plate. Hiccup grabbed a plate and headed over to a table that had more or less become theirs, due to the fact that it was close enough to the wall that there wasn't room enough for a table, yet far away enough that Toothless could fit beside it. While most of the dragons didn't enter the hall unless there was a bad storm that sprung up before they could head to the Nest, Toothless tended to ignore such things unless he felt like it. As Hiccup took his seat, with Astrid on one side, Toothless immediately laid his head on the bench on the other side. And looked up soulfully at him.

"You really shouldn't have given him treats y'know.' Astrid commented as the others took their places, the twins opposite with Fishlegs beside, and SNotlout on the other side of Astrid.

"Once! It was once!" Hiccup hissed back to her. "Shoo." He whispered at the dragon, who only sighed. He'd slipped the dragon some of his fish once when he'd still been recovering and hadn't had much of an appetite after he lost his leg, and the damn dragon never forgot.

"So how did your flights go," Hiccup questioned his friends, trying to not pay attention to the dragon who kept scooting closer. Why Toothless thought he could be subtle, as big as he was, went completely over Hiccup's head.

"Eh, not too bad," Ruffnut shrugged, "I think I heard yelling at some point, but that was because trollface here," she shoved her brother as he started to drink from his cup, "decided to try some tricks without telling me, which pissed off my head, Spit, who got into a fight with his, Spat, and we kind of fell for just a little bit. Not really a big deal, but the guy I think was yelling at us." She rolled her eyes. "It was only twenty or so feet, I don't see what his problem was."

Tuffnut scowled, wiping the spilled drink off of his face and flinging droplets of it at her.

"Mine was awesome, of course." Snotlout replied, sitting back and crossing his arms behind his head. "Yeah, me and Fireworm did everything perfect. Okay, so maybe She was a little happy and let loose some fire, but only ahead of us, barely got singed really. It's not like she set herself on fire or anything."

Hiccup had covered his face at the first recitation, and only gave a slight, small sigh at the second.

Fishlegs then piped up "Mine was pretty uneventful, I was telling him how Gronkle's wings allow them to hover in the air and how they have a six shot limit, and how their skin is incredibly dense, and how they lay the smallest eggs of any of the species, and how I'm working on rewriting the Dragon manual with all of this information and he seemed pretty quiet until we landed. Um. I'm not sure he really said anything."

"Well, that's… good." Hiccup said. At least one of his friends managed a take off and landing without singeing or scaring one of his students. He turned to look at Astrid, who blushed, oh that wasn't good.

"Well, everything started good, but well, my student didn't seem to be able to understand that I wasn't interested. I may or may not have planted my elbow in certain sensitive spots, and followed with threat to plant my axe between his eyebrows once we got to the ground." She scowled. "If they're all that obnoxious I'm not guaranteeing no bloodshed by the end of this."

Hiccup covered a laugh with a cough, as Snotlout who had been leaning forward, ostensibly to pay attention but obviously to stare at Astrid, jerked back and adopted a more serious expression. He slumped down, stirring at the stew that was on his plate, before jerking up and glaring at Toothless, who had moved close enough that the dragon was trying to put his head in his lap and had almost knocked him off the bench. How something that big could move so quietly both confused and annoyed him. He shoved at the dragon's snout, before gulping down some food.

"Okay, so let's see if we can't make the next session a bit less… Eventful." Hiccup stated, as he swung his legs over the bench. The others shrugged and looked at each other.

-xXx-

Hiccup now sat on Toothless with the rather worried Rockfall behind him. Astrid had Hawkspit, who looked excited to finally be on a dragon. Snotlout had one of the other teens, Crabsplat was what Hiccup thought his name was. One of the older men, Strikestone, was with the twins, looking disapproving, but the two were trying to see who could punch the other the hardest, so they weren't exactly the most serious looking of the riders. Thuggory was with Fishlegs and actually seemed interested in the continuous stream of information coming from the large teen.

Toothless seemed fine, and Hiccup hoped the dragon would behave himself this time. Hiccup gave the signal this time to go into the air, and this time Toothless was one of the first to leap upwards. The dragon ascended quickly, but definitely not the crazed race to the clouds of the first flight. Rockfall had yelped at first at the takeoff, but quickly began to look around once they were flying smoothly. Hiccup was pleased to see that Toothless was staying in range of the rest, and he was better able to keep and eye on the rest of the gang. The twins were behaving a bit better, apparently Spit and Spat had decided to ignore them and both heads were staying far enough apart that they weren't dragged into the sibling's fight. Astrid was actually pointing things out to Hawkspit as they took an easy graceful turn. Crabsplat seemed to be urging Snotlout into more daring flights, hopefully Snotlout wouldn't try to imitate Hiccup and Toothless' flight as that would only irritate Fireworm.

Toothless performed a shallow dive and Hiccup heard Rockfall actually laugh. He twisted his head to see the huge grin on the other's face. It struck him that Rockfall was only about two years younger than him. Rockfall grinned back, yelling in his ear "C'mon, I know your dragon can do more than this!"

Hiccup grinned back before leaning down to Toothless. "Okay bud, let's go." He felt the dragon, whose rumbles had been rather discontented, he never liked holding back, change to purrs of happiness as he angled his wings to cut into the air and send them soaring upwards at a fast speed. Toothless beat his wings , before suddenly folding them and sending them into a dive. He pulled upwards right above the ocean, close enough for both teens to feel the spray. This ride was more exciting than the tame flapping about, but nowhere near as jerky and focused on flinging the riders around as the first. Hiccup actually relaxed as he heard Rockfall calling for more, sounding as excited as he usually was when Toothless decided to really let go.

"WHOOP!" He heard Rockfall yell as they found themselves curving back among the others in the air. They sped past Fishlegs and Snotlout, Toothless going on his side as he shot between Horrorcow and Fireworm. Crabsplat was yelling at Snotlout to go after them, and before he knew it the rest of his friends and their dragons were chasing after them, trainees cheering at the speed.

Maybe the rest of his students would feel the excitement that Rockfall and the rest were feeling now. He hoped so, it was one of the main joys of dragon riding he'd wanted to show them.

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A/N: Tuffnut's sickness occurred to me when I was watching how the teens rode their different dragons. Hiccup is perched on the neck/shoulders of Toothless, ditto Snotlout and Astrid on their dragons. Fishlegs is kinda sorta farther back, mostly because Gronkles don't really have a neck. But the Twins are right behind their respective heads of their Zippleback. At the end of very long neck. With each head operating individually. I picture this kind of like being on a carnival ride from hell, every time that head wants to look around, you're getting flung about. In addition to the movement of the body as a whole. Seriously, I think I'd be sick, and I like the rides my parents referred to as Spin-and-Pukes

I also wanted to thank everybody who's reviewed so far, and everybody who's favorited this story or added it to their alerts! I'm still working on the next chapter of The Past is the Present as well.

Also, FF . net, stop messing about with my hit registry pleaseandthankyou. The whole nothing for seven days and the updating slowly? Really tiresome.


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